


Tainted Souls

by HyperKey



Series: Tainted [3]
Category: Metal Gear
Genre: AU, Angst, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-06
Updated: 2016-02-12
Packaged: 2018-04-30 08:40:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 16
Words: 63,675
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5157341
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HyperKey/pseuds/HyperKey
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After the death of his hero, John tries to get back at the killer, but what he finds out in turn shatters his trust in a person he didn't think was involved.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> This was supposed to be a follow up of Caged Hearts, but i wasn't confident in continuing it with a second fic.  
> So this is a standalone AU set ten years after MGR:R. John, now 19, is studying cybernetics overseas, and deals with the struggles of an almost tween.
> 
> This is NOT a school AU. (The school thing is just a part of it, it doesn't focus on that.) If you like those, don't expect this here.
> 
> First chapter is in first person, the rest in 3rd person.
> 
> Hope you enjoy it :D
> 
> DISCLAIMER: Metal Gear and its characters do not belong to me. I just play around.  
> The city this plays in is a real existing place and all the buildings and streets actually exist too.  
> Lisa and Core are OC's

It's been four years now since he's gone. Four years mom and I dealt with the pain of that loss. Sure, the money stopped being so tight. But I think that is the only good thing that came from it. She's still living in that stupid tiny house. Sometimes I pretend he's at work. It helps with the pain. I haven't told mom, she would probably tell me that this isn't a good way of coping with loss. I don't want to let go of him. Mom had been over it after a few months, moved on. I think she's even seeing someone. I'm glad she's happy.

 I should be happy too, but at rainy autumn evenings like these, when it's cold and I'm so far away from home I just can't help but think about him. My room in this college dorm is filled with books about cybernetics, science, philosophy. Sunny helped me get into that field. I'm no genius like her, but she has the connections and Doktor is a great teacher even though he talks way too much sometimes. I pretty much moved across the globe. Again. But this time I'm on my own and sometimes it's just plain lonely out here in a country I barely know.

 All good cybernetic experts originate from Germany. At least that's what Dok says. I think he's trying to shed a better light on himself. Even though he's doing so much for all the cyborgs and all the kids. Some of them are still waiting on bodies. Sunny and Uncle Hal helped developing a VR environment that makes them able to communicate. I think they're grateful for it. At least I hope they are.

Sometimes I wonder if they even know who saved them, if they feel grateful to that man. Without dad they wouldn't be there.

When I go to visit Dok we barely ever talk about anything other than cybernetics. He retired from his work at Maverick and moved on to work on the kids. He's not far from where I'm staying actually. Sometimes he takes me out to eat in this huge town. Communicating with my peers is still difficult even after two years. At least I finally understand the lectures without needing to ask my neighbors every few minutes. Man that had been so embarrassing.  It's getting really cold here in winter. It's only the second time I'm experiencing it here, but it's terrible. I barely remember how it was like when we still lived in New York, or when mom and I were staying at Roy's place. Guess I was too young. I enjoyed the time in New Zealand. I loved the house, the backyard, my school and my friends. Kind of funny how quickly I left all this behind to do the one thing I dreamt about since I don't know when.

Mom and I communicate by e-mail, sometimes Skype. She stopped dyeing her hair. It still surprises me to see the blonde hair on her. It's nowhere near as light as mine, so I guess I really got that hair color from dad. I'm glad about it. There isn't much I have of him. But I have the blade. Not that I'll ever use it, but It reminds me of him. I had wrestled Kevin to get my hands on that thing. Fifteen year old teenager who was looking for a fight when Mom and I went to Maverick to collect his things.

I always liked Kevin but ever since that day the people at Maverick are dead to me. Kevin let me have the blade after I threatened to slice him apart if he wouldn't give it to me. Ha, I can't even hold that thing properly.

I hate Boris for the funeral for what they did with it. I always thought they were dad's friends, but they acted as if he had been a tool. Dad didn't deserve that. Sometimes I think they might have had something to do with his death. Got rid of him when he stopped being useful or something. Hell he could still be alive if they had let him come home when he wanted to. I don't know the exact details, but I know that dad was unable to come home even after the three months were over. Funny, I was whining about it. To think I would never see him again. It still feels like someone's stabbing me.

 But it's no use to dwell on it, I'm just making myself sad. I should be studying, yet this stupid weather took all motivation away.

It's ironic how I always thought dad was happy with work and didn't mind being away from home. Now I realize how lonely he must have been. Dad never complained about his work or about being away from home. He never took anything for granted and he was so grateful for everything.

Sometimes I think he was an idiot. Don't get me wrong, I loved my dad. I still do. But there were so many occasions when I questioned him. He was naive sometimes, it was easy to fool him. I have to admit that I used it against him sometimes.  Must be something I got from mom. The right words and I can make  anyone do what I want. I don't think that's a good trait. Dad never realized though. I think it's better that way.

This freaking homework drives me nuts. _'Why are you interested in cybernetics?'_

Such an innocent question, something so simple and I just can't answer it. Why am I interested?

It was a long time ago when I had the childish thought of wanting to help dad. I was six or seven, just got into school and dad had trouble finding a job. Nobody wanted him to work at their place and the body gave him a lot of trouble too. I was still caught up in fantasies of Cyborg Ninjas and Anime, didn't know a thing about the cruel world and dad was the greatest hero alive for me.

Then that time when I was nine and dad got seriously injured. They made him a new body, one he wasn't allowed to keep. That was the first time I got angry at Boris. I didn't understand a thing about how expensive the bodies were, but I knew that dad's life was depending on them. I couldn't understand how Boris could be so cruel. Maybe I understand it now. I still hate him. And Kevin and Courtney.

Why am I studying cybernetics? I wanted to help dad, but dad is no longer there. I like it here. Even if it's far away from home. I have a few friends, idiots and jerks who're always up to some rule breaking, but they're good people at heart. You wouldn't believe how smart they are. Heh.

Reminds me I should give Tyler a call. Haven't seen him in two years, but with how we left each other that's probably  better.  He ended up adopting his sister and moved to Ohio, apparently he couldn't take being around his messed up family anymore. Now Mom is probably all alone there with all the nice neighbors moving away. I think the house is too big for her alone and I miss her too.

Maybe I should just write it down like this. I'm interested in it because I once knew a cyborg. Yeah. Wish I could ask dad. He'd know some answer. He'd probably laugh. Say 'because it's cool', or something like that.

God I still remember the call from Maverick as if it was yesterday. I was fifteen, head full of that cute girl I knew since third grade.  She had dumped me that day. I was a grumpy mess, yelled at mom, told her to go to hell. She went out for groceries and I was so hopeful when the phone rang. I had hoped Betsy would call, apologize, tell me she didn't mean it that way.

I was staring at the clock in the hallway when I picked up the phone. It was half past four in the afternoon. The clock ticking away, somehow I thought time was slowing down in that moment. Seconds felt like forever. I don't know why it felt like that. It took a while before anyone spoke and I had taken the receiver off my ear to look at the number it displayed.

When I recognized it my heart leapt. I had hoped Dad would call, tell me that he'll come home anyway. I think I even smiled.

When Boris asked for Mom, I knew something bad was going on. He made a huge show out of it, refused to tell me. When Boris called it was never something good. In the end I asked him that question of which I had always dreaded the answer to.

I had asked with the growl of a teenager who had just gotten his ass dumped and was in no mood for any friendly words. I was such a brat at that time.

I kind of want to tell him all the things I have accomplished, show him what I'm working on. Mom supports me wherever she can, but sometimes I just want to talk to him. Listen to his thoughts and theories.

There was only one thing dad had ever told me about his past. He didn't chose to become a cyborg.

We had been arguing about something, I don't even remember what it was, but I said something mean and he yelled back, the part of his face that could change color was red in anger. I was never afraid of him, it didn't matter if he yelled or his eyes did the weird glowing thing. At that moment when he yelled at me, almost in tears because he was so upset at the bratty kid I had become, I just pitied him.

Dad had tons of issues. So many I don't even know where to start.

When they retrieved his body from the battlefield, Boris gave us another call. Bullet straight through the brain, he said. He was dead instantly. I still don't believe it. Pretty words, with icing on top. I don't think he died instantly.

Mom keeps telling me to hear Boris out, listen to what he has to say, but that guy can screw himself. Everyone at Maverick can.

The day I accept the calls from Boris, will be the day when I am ready to blow their company to smithereens. Of course I wouldn't, but I like to imagine it. Every time I start missing dad this badly, I just can't help but project all my anger at Maverick and how much I hate Boris and Kevin.

Boris because of that funeral, Kevin because of the blade. I'm not a strong person, but when Kevin stared at me, frightened at my growled words and just gave me the blade, it felt good.

 _'You don't understand a thing, boy.'_ He had yelled at me.

Now the blade is sitting on display in my dorm room. It's a good thing I have this room to myself. It keeps people from questioning my strange taste in weaponry. I'm not even interested in fighting, but there isn't much left of dad to remember him. Mom's carrying his wedding ring on a necklace, I have the Blade. And a few old shirts that are too big and will never fit me.

And I still haven't answered that stupid question. How am I even supposed to write an essay about it?

Maybe I should ask someone, see what the others are writing. Maybe Sunny, or even Dok. Dok's always trying to be helpful.

I sometimes get pestered with questions about the cyborg I talk about sometimes. I think they are still believing that I made this up. Like the kids in school. Their faces were priceless when dad actually drove me to school. Wish he could just show up now, shock them. Show off a little.

I could've been anything. My grades are good enough to study pretty much anything, but this is what I do now, trying my best at making life for cyborgs better. Wonder if fate had chosen that path for me or if I just happened to take the card I wanted.

I think I have to thank dad for it.  

  


	2. Chapter 2

He woke to an early morning Phone call from Sunny. She  had somehow managed to hack into the phone service and reduce the costs. John just pretended he didn't know she had done it. Sluggishly he reached out to the nightstand, knocked down books, an empty glass and a few pens before he located the phone. When he opened his eyes sunbeams assaulted them and he closed them again, grabbed the phone, turned over and finally picked up. He let the phone rest on his ear when his hands slumped back down in a comfortable position and he closed his eyes again. Whoever dared to call him this early on a Monday morning could go to hell.

 "John, are you up?" He heard Sunny's voice ask. Her voice had changed a bit. It sounded a lot more mature, maybe even a bit sensual. If it was even possible to mention Sensual and Sunny in one sentence. She wasn't interested in girly things, didn't care about her looks as much as other women did, and John was almost sure that her face had never seen make up, save for a little lip gloss here and there. She had the few people close to her, anyone else wasn't allowed in.  And as far as he knew, Sunny wasn't interested in any close relationship either. Not that he had asked her. Sunny was a friend, a good one. But there was nothing more.

"Hrmm." John grumbled sleepily into the phone, fully emerged into the warm feeling of the blanket and without any intention to get up before the first lecture. Mondays were terrible. Who had invented Mondays? And why had the week so many work days and only two days of weekend? The things he wondered about when he was half asleep barely surprised him anymore.

"Come on, Johnny." Sunny teased him. She knew he hated that nickname. Any association with Uncle Johnny was embarrassing.  Not that he hated him or anything, but that man was a little too much sometimes.

"What do you want..." He mumbled sleepily, ready to hang up on her or just toss the phone across the room. He didn't care which was easier, just wanted to get some more sleep.

"Well," She started, dragging her reply out with a smile in her voice. She loved to do that, tease the hell out of him just to laugh when he got frustrated. She was really mean sometimes, but John just couldn't stay angry at her. "Wolf and I did some digging around for a client."

John had to remind himself that Sunny had retired from Solis and was now working as an analyst somewhere. He didn't know what her reasons were but she seemed to like the Job, apparently she still designed engines and things like that for Solis in her free time, though. John faintly remembered that she said something about wanting to be closer to the city.

"So what?" He sighed and sat up. There was no way to get more sleep now with her talking like that. She would make a huge secret out of whatever she wanted to tell him.

"I stumbled over something and did a little more digging."

John sighed and dragged the blanket off his legs. "Get to the point, Sunny." He urged her on when he walked over to the tiny kitchen area  in his dorm room and prepared some instant coffee. He caught a glimpse at himself in the filthy mirror on the wall to his left, made a mental note to clean that thing when he messed with his hair a bit. He decided that he couldn't cut the shower today and sighed. While he waited for the water to boil he walked over to the closet, tripped over a stack of books and cursed silently before he opened the double doors and took a step back to look at the choices he had.

"Hey. It's more fun this way, because I know you'll like what I'll tell you." Sunny kept teasing.

"If you keep this up I'll might just hang up on you, girl." He shot back and decided to go with one of the oversized button up shirts that wasn't actually his, over his favorite Borderlands T-Shirt and some lose fitting jeans because he couldn't be bothered to look for the others he had somewhere in the mess that was his closet.

This room itself was a huge mess, he noted. He needed more time in between lectures and studying and falling asleep on the desk. He almost heard his father scold him for it.

"Hanging up on me would be mean." Sunny pouted, he heard that.

He shook his head to himself, relocated the items of clothing into the small bathroom after he had found a pair of clean boxers and socks, threw a towel on top of the pile and went back to the kitchen to finally brew the coffee.

"Then tell me why the hell you threw me out of bed on a Monday at seven am when my first lecture isn't about to start until twelve pm."

He filled the cup with the horrible instant coffee, realized he needed to stock up on that and poured the water on top while he squeezed the phone between his shoulder and ear to have the other hand free for stirring.  Sunny apparently heard the spoon clattering against the cup.

"Coffee, eh? I don't know why you still drink that stuff. Switch to tea!"

"Tea doesn't get me working in the morning." He yawned as if to underline his words. "Can you now, oh great Sunny, finally tell me why the hell you called me?"

Sunny sighed. "Fine." She said, and he heard her typing into a keyboard. "Wolf and I did some digging for a client, and we accidentally turned up a classified file." She paused.

John stayed silent, hoped she would continue this time, while he sipped the searing hot coffee and used the silence to pick up a few of the books that had fallen to the floor.

"Anyway, I got curious because it belonged to a company called 'MSC.'"

John almost dropped the cup then, slammed it on the counter in the kitchen, and needed a moment to find his voice. "The Maverick Bastards?!"

"Yeah, those." Sunny replied with acid in her voice. She didn't like them any more than he did.

"Fucking assholes." John growled, anger boiling up instantly.

Sunny scoffed. "The file I found is going to be of interest for you. It is a report on how Jack got killed, and I traced all people back that were mentioned." She explained. "And guess what, John?"

"What?" He hissed.

"It  all leads back to Maverick. They all were involved with them at some point and were hired to work for them in that particular mission, but as the opposing client, actually."

John stopped breathing for a second then. "A setup?"

"Most likely."

"Are you telling me Dad got killed by his..."

"It looks like that. Not sure what we can do with that information though. It certainly won't bring Jack back and it's not like they'd believe us either."

John smirked to himself. "No. But I know who's going to get one hell of a firework show now."

"Are you insane?!" Sunny yelled at him then.

"Relax, I'm joking. There's no way I'd be able to sneak in there. And where am I supposed to get a bomb anyway?"

"Don't do anything stupid okay?" She muttered.

He smiled at the phone. "Me? Never. By the way Sunny, about that AI I asked about, for that philosophy Project, is it done yet?"

"Yup. I uploaded the file, you just have to download it to a flash-drive and plug it into a computer. It'll do the rest. I made sure it's easy to use. It can't do much of course, It's just nothing like Wolf."

"I know. Thanks Sunny, you're the best." He smiled. "Say Hi to Hal for me."

"Will do. Bye!"

John stared at the black screen of the phone, then noticed how badly his hands trembled. The anger was still boiling inside him.

Grabbing a leftover slice of the pizza he had last night he cleared the table with one swift movement of his arm, causing all kinds of things to clatter to the ground, including the homework for the lecture later. He couldn't care less when he opened his backpack and dragged his laptop out, placed it on the table and started it up.

He then spent at least twenty minutes looking for a flash-drive to house the AI in. He decided to use one of the plain ones. He had collected a bunch of the unique flash drives, some disguised as everyday items, some funny ones. Lisa kept bringing them, most disguised as popsicles and ice-cream cones. The girl was sitting next to him during most of the lectures, helped him with homework on occasion. She was one of the few people who helped him with the new language, and she kept scolding him for being so lazy when it came to homework. He knew she and her father lived close to the college, so she wasn't staying in the dorm. Her mother had run off to somewhere with another man and so it was just her and her father. At least that was what she had told John.

John connected flash drive to the laptop and navigated through the mess of links Sunny had sent him over the past few weeks. He downloaded the program and while he waited for it to finish he gave one of his friends a call, still nibbling on the cold pizza.

"Do you know what time it is? Did you get locked out of your room or what?"

"Good morning to you too, Core." John smirked. He liked that most of his friends had the habit of speaking English with him, but Core, real name Andrew, originated from Great Britain so the language barrier was nonexistent between them. He was something that could be called a hacker. While not as skilled as Sunny or as bright, he was still good at what he was doing.

"What do you need?" Core asked silently.

"Your skills."

"What are you planning, J?" There was this excited anticipation in the older male's voice.  John knew he could get him to do anything if it sounded interesting enough. He was two years older than John, different major, overall not that into cybernetics. His parents had moved to Germany when he was twelve and now he was here.

"Remember what I told you about my dad?" John shook his head, disconnected the flash drive when the download was complete and placed it on the table.

"That he got killed on his job? Yeah. I remember that."

John's lips curled upwards in some sort of distorted grin when he turned off the laptop and put it back into the gray backpack decorated with all sorts of buttons and patches. He straightened out one of the bigger patches and used a safety pin from another to pin down a curled up edge.

He was proud of that particular patch. It was red and in black letters  it had _'Human rights for Cyborgs!'_ stitched on it. Most of the other patches had similar phrases on them, but this one was special because his mother had made it. As bad as her cooking was, she was great at sewing and knitting. Most of his pullovers were made by hear too. He needed them here. While he always disliked them Back home, here he came to appreciate the warmth they provided.

"Friend of mine got a lead on who could have done it."

"And you want me to hack into whatever system they're using and give them a good scare?"

John laughed. "Actually, I have something bigger in mind."

There was a short silence on the other end. "Hey, I'm all up for scaring people a bit, but don't count me in on permanently damaging something, or _someone_."

"Nothing like that, Core. You just need to help me modify an AI."

John felt a little bad for using the AI that had been meant to be used for a project. He had wanted to present his teachers with an AI that could think for itself in a basic sense. Something that was aware of what it was and why it was.  Most AI's just existed, they never questioned. He hoped Sunny had programmed it the way he wanted it to be, still felt like he was abusing the being inside. Sunny had once joked about him getting too attached to objects that had no feelings, but he couldn't help it. And She was attached to Wolf. Although John wasn't sure if she didn't just see him as a toy and not a being.

 That AI Sunny had made would come in handy for what he was planning. Oh, he would give Maverick a scare. One they wouldn't forget for a long time.

"I'll be at your place in half an hour. You better clean up, J." Core laughed and ended the call.

John chose the time Core needed to show up to take the quick shower he had been putting off for too long and dressed, then tried to clean up the room as much as possible.

He had almost finished cleaning up, really it wasn't that messy actually, when he heard a knock on his door. The young man went to open it and was greeted with the unshaven face of his friend. The thick rimmed glasses seemed to have changed colors again, brown hair was tied together into a messy ponytail. He was carrying two laptops and had headphones around his neck.

John let him in, shook his head when the older male eyed the room as if he had never seen it before. "Hey, that thing's new."

"What is new?" John walked up to him and followed the direction Core pointed at.  It was the glass cabinet with the Blade of his father.

"It's not. There's just always shirts hanging over. It's been there ever since I moved here."

Core lifted and eyebrow, put the laptops on the table and placed the headphones on top after he had taken off the messenger bag. He poured himself a cup of coffee and walked over to the cabinet and crouched down.

"Is that what I think it is?" the young man asked silently, almost whispered as if he would disturb anyone if he spoke louder. He carefully touched the glass and peered into the cabinet, almost touched it with his nose to get a better look.

"It's just a sword." John rolled his eyes.

"That's not a normal sword, J. It's-"

"A High-Frequency blade. I know."

Core turned around, still crouched on the ground, brown eyes wide in excitement. "You have a HF-Blade in your freaking room! Where'd you get that?!

John sighed, slumped down on the chair at the table and poked Core's headphones in rising boredom. "Belonged to someone I know." He muttered, looked at the white headphones with their black swirls on them.

"And why do you have it now?" Core still refused to move away from that cabinet.

"Well." John stretched and yawned. "He's dead, doubt he needs it to slice apart little devils and imps." His father had always said he'd go to hell. John didn't believe in any of these fairy tales. Dead was dead and there was nothing after it.

"Oh." Core finally moved away from the cabinet then, but John caught him looking at it way more than necessary. "That's so cool." He kept whispering while he started the laptop.

John handed him the flash drive and pulled the chair close to be able to look at the screen. By now he understood most of that the coding meant, but it wasn't his field and he focused more on hardware rather than software.

"That's an impressive AI actually..." Core muttered after he had tested it out for a while. "Your friend's good. Is he on campus?"

John smirked. "No. **She** is somewhere in the states and analyzes data for big companies."

Core now smirked too. "You know amazing people, J."

"I'm excluding you from that list because you're still staring at that sword."

"It's just really cool. It's not every day you see something like that!"

John scoffed. It had taken a tear jerking story to make the dorm manager accept this weapon to be allowed here after she had found out that it was an actual sword and not just a toy. John went into full detail on how he had obtained it, even told her the story about the funeral. About the stupid wooden box with just a head inside. He still felt sick when he thought about it. And angry. Incredibly angry.

"What do you want that AI to do though?" Core ripped him out of his thoughts.

John needed a moment to process what the other had said. "I want it to corrupt some data."

"I'll put in a safety measure then. Just a big scare, nothing permanent, remember? It'll make a backup of the data before it gets destroyed. How are you going to insert this though?"

"Thought you might be able to actually hack into their server." John muttered.

Core tilted his head, thought about the options. "Depends on how tight their security is. What kind of place is it anyway?"

"Maverick Security Consulting." John replied with a growl.

 Core took his hands off the keyboard and stared at younger male. "Your dad got killed by a PMC?"

"Apparently."

The older one looked at him, disbelief in his eyes. "Are you sure? You really wouldn't want cyborgs on your ass, you know?"

That was the one thing he didn't like about his friend. He didn't treat Cyborgs like people. Still, John of course was aware that he wouldn't stand a chance in a direct face off with a cyborg. "They're just people." He eventually muttered.

"Next thing you tell me your father was a criminal and actually deserved it..."

John slammed a fist on the table, making the laptops jump slightly. Core pulled away from the table and stared at John in surprise.

"Don't _ever_ say that about him again!" John shouted.

Core held up his hands in defense. "Okay, Okay, calm your pants." The older male sighed. "I'll try to hack in, but I can't guarantee anything. So just give up if this doesn't work okay?"

"Thanks." John muttered, not thinking about giving up even if it didn't work. Last resort was asking Sunny, but he didn't want to go that far yet. Maybe they could just corrupt their data a bit. John wanted revenge, not just for his father's death, but for how Maverick had treated it. Sure they got some money as some sort of compensation, one more thing on the long list, on things Maverick did wrong, that John kept in his head.

John watched the minutes pass by as Core kept trying to hack Maverick's servers. He cursed on occasion, sighed in frustration and half past eleven am, he asked for a second coffee. John then went to his lecture, but could barely concentrate on it. He wanted to see what Core was doing. Be there the moment he broke through and sent the AI on to the servers and make them think it was all corrupted beyond repair.

After the lecture he rushed into a grocery store to get some new instant coffee. He knew he would need it, and almost ran back to the dorm after he had hastily paid for it and rushed out of the store. Core was still sitting at the laptop, but the screen was dark.

"Bad news." He sighed when John put the coffee into a cabinet in the kitchen. "They fried my laptop."

"What?"

"They noticed I tried to hack them so they fried it. I can probably repair it, but it's going to take a while."

John began to feel guilty now. There were still things about computers he just didn't understand, and this was one of those moments. However, laptops weren't cheap, even now, and even though Core had at least as many as Sunny had, some were better equipped than others.

"I'm sorry-"

Core Shrugged and handed him the flash drive. "Here, that thing still works. Not sure what you're going to do with it now though."

"I'll find some use for it." John muttered, a new plan already forming in his head. If he couldn't get it done from here, he would just have to go there. There was enough money on his account for a flight. He hoped at least, he barely spent anything. Was this worth it? Would his father even want that? He scoffed. Probably not, but this was what John wanted to do, and he would do it. One way or another. Sunny would probably have better chances to hack into their servers. Still, He didn't want to put her at risk, she could lose her job. He would probably just get thrown out of college. There would be other places to go then. Doktor needed someone to help him anyway.

He skipped the lecture in the afternoon to gather all the necessary information he needed, was done with it in the evening and would be ready to go once he had the traveling sorted out. It was a lot of complicated paperwork he realized. It would take him at least a week to gather all the things he needed to travel to the states. But he had waited four years, what was one more week? And technically he was still American, despite not having lived there for over a decade. He had the ID to prove that. It shouldn't be that big of a problem.

He could use that week to squeeze some more info out of Sunny, too. A floor-plan was a start. John had only once been to the Head Quarters and that was four years ago. He hadn't seen much other than the locker room and the entrance hall. Maybe he would get something for Core as an apology for the ruined laptop, too.

He decided to give his mother a call. She deserved to hear something from him, but he wasn't going to tell her about what he had found out or what he was going to do. She didn't need to worry about him. She had enough things to worry about.

He would do this alone. Actually, he wanted to hurt that company, destroy their reputation. Anything to get back at them. How did they dare to be involved in his father's death?!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There we have a few OC's. I hope they're not too intrusive.


	3. Confusion

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm on a run... I think this is the first story i ever wrote that is fully planned out before i wrote one word. Haha.
> 
> Hope you like it :3
> 
> Last chapter for Caged Hearts is started. Will finish that tomorrow or the day after.

John was too emerged in planning that he went to bed too late and slept through the first lecture. Around eleven am his cell phone woke him. That was the second day in a row, John noted. He growled at the phone, glared at the screen. Gasped in surprise when he noticed the time and sat up straight before he picked up.

"John, I know you're really busy with studying, but you need to actually show up for the lectures." Doktor sighed.

"Sorry..." the young man apologized, suppressed a yawn and slowly made his way out of bed. "I just did a bunch of research last night..."

"Working on a new project, I see."

John nodded, got out of bed and threw on some clothing that didn't smell. He needed to do laundry later. He shut his laptop and put it into his backpack, sighed silently.

"Actually, Dok..." John began, boiled some water for the coffee after he had filled his cup with the instant coffee and stared out of the window. "Sunny found out something about dad's killers."

There was a long silence on the other end, something that made John think he shouldn't have mentioned it. Dok barely ever spoke about his father and usually switched topics really fast. John couldn't help but think that Dok was just as depressed about the whole thing as he or his mother were.

"Is that so?" the man asked, slight curiosity in his voice, but it also held a hint of _'you're better not plotting something stupid.'_

"Seems like the Maverick bastards had something to do with it."

Another moment of silence followed. John brewed his coffee and carried the cup to the table where he sat down. He wasn't sure yet how he would do it, but he wanted to blow Maverick up. Not in the physical sense, more like destroying them from the inside out. Ruin their company so they couldn't kill anyone else.

"Is that why you skipped lectures yesterday and this morning?"

"Kind of..."

He almost saw Doktor shake his head. "Boy, what happened was tragic, I do not deny that. But there is nothing you can do."

John growled in anger. "I want to! I want to make them pay for it! They killed him for fucks sake!" He screamed into the phone, tears burning in his eyes. "They fucking killed him! Now it even makes sense why they were such assholes about the whole thing!"

Doktor sighed deeply. "Please come to the lecture tomorrow. And don't skip any more today. I know you are upset, but there are often things in life that we cannot change. You would only endanger your own life if you made a move against them, do you understand? I do not wish to see you getting harmed, John."

Now it was John's turn to sigh. Doktor had become something like a grandfather to him.  While he was teaching cybernetics, he was also always there for John when he needed help. It didn't matter what it was, Doktor always had a solution. Just this time his words upset the teen greatly.

"I know..." John sighed, finished his coffee and ended the call, then dressed quickly, threw his backpack over his shoulder and rushed out of the room so he wouldn't be late for the 11:45 lecture. He was lucky the dorm was close to the subway station and it was only one station anyway. If he had more time he could even walk the distance, but he didn't have that time now so he rushed down the stairs into the tunnel, almost ran into a few people when he heard the closing signal of the doors and barely made it into the car before the doors shut and the train began to move.

The subway was quite empty, nothing unusual for this time of the day. Not many people actually came here and the next station was the last on the route anyway. It had just been built a few years earlier, everything still fairly new and unused. The two stations he saw frequently were gigantic, both designed in unique ways that had him gaping when he first saw them two years ago. Now he was used to them, ignored their architecture.

When the train stopped he jumped off, ran up the stairs, almost didn't catch the curve to get to the next flight of stairs, stumbled, but caught his balance and rushed up the last steps. He then turned right and dashed straight ahead. The college was right in front of the station entrance, nobody could miss it. A few students were sitting on the steps to the building, some smoking, some with laptops on their laps, some chatting. John didn't have eyes for those when he made his way into the building and rushed up the two stories to the room the next lecture would be held in.

His seat was taken by someone else, his fault for being late, so he took one in the back, stared straight ahead to the almost completely filled room. Lisa was nowhere in sight, she was probably either skipping or had some other schedule today. He didn't mind it much, now he could actually listen to what the teacher had to say. The man barely spoke any German so all his lectures were held in English. He wasn't there all the time. As he actually worked at an elementary school as an English teacher, but here he taught his students about philosophy. John often agreed with what the man said, and once he had even commented on the red patch he had on his backpack, said that it was a good thing that at least a few of the students didn't just see cyborgs as test subjects.

There was the rumor going around that Mister Scott was actually a cyborg, but no one could prove it, and the man dodged all questions about it. Some even said that his face wasn't real and that he looked really handsome when he wasn't hiding it behind a mask. John assumed that those rumors were made by the girls, didn't pay attention to them. Mister Scott was a middle aged man, dark hair and eyes,  and a great teacher. John wasn't sure why he admired him so much, but he liked the way he talked and the way he treated the students. He answered all questions, if they weren't personal questions, and was never missing an opportunity to set someone's head straight on how they saw Cyborgs.

Maybe that was why John liked him so much. The man had mentioned that he used to work very closely with cyborgs before he became a teacher and he knew a lot about them.

John almost felt bad for skipping his class yesterday. Now when the man walked in at exactly 11:45 am, dressed in the almost too casual clothing he usually wore, the room instantly went silent. Everyone here knew that it was better not to make the man angry, as great a teacher he was, if he was in a bad mood it was better to stay silent and just listen. The man was scary when he was angry. He often kicked people out of the lecture if they were too loud then.

"Good morning." He greeted the students. John had already taken out his tablet-pc to write down whatever the man would talk about today.

"Before we start," Mister Scott muttered, "Mister Sears, I am pleased to see your face today. I'd like to hear your explanation for missing without any notice yesterday, after class."

John tried to appear smaller than he was and just nodded slightly. Mister Scott did not like people who skipped class.

The teen silently listened to the lecture, wrote down what the man put on the whiteboard. Outside it had gotten dark , thick rainclouds were moving over the building and in a matter of minutes it was pouring like no tomorrow.

Mister Scott turned in the light switch with a well placed flick a ball of paper someone had thrown in front earlier and continued to write onto the whiteboard as if nothing had happened. It was a stunt the man had pulled quite a few times so no one bothered to comment on it anymore. He really was efficient when it came to time management. The class was only 90 minutes, so he had to pack a lot of things into it, yet he always found time to answer questions and still get done with his topics. John found it really interesting.

Once the time was over, John wasn't eager to leave, even though he dreaded the lecture he would undoubtedly get. He hadn't packed and umbrella and his backpack wasn't waterproof. Once everyone had left the room John walked up to Mister Scott and waited for the scolding.

"So?" the man asked as he leaned against the wall with a raised eyebrow and crossed arms. "Your defense?"

John nervously scratched the back of his head. "Well..." He muttered, not sure what he was going to tell the man. "I just forgot the time when I was studying..."

"Right." Mister Scott muttered, a small smirk playing on his lips. "I take it you finished the essay though?"

"Yes." John turned around and placed his laptop on the table behind him. The flash drive with the AI clattered to the ground then and John cursed silently. Mister Scott picked it up and placed it on the table, then watched the boy start up the laptop and open the document he had written the day before yesterday. "I totally forgot to send it to you..." He apologized and let the man have a look.

The man moved closer and carefully read through the essay. John could see him frown and chew on his lip. When he had read through it his face was serious, eyes sad. "I can't give you full points because it's late, but please send it to me, I'll grade it with the others. It was a nice read."

John blushed a little. "Thanks... It... kind of means a lot to me..." He laughed, turned away to blink the tears away. He wasn't sure if he would ever write an essay about his father again. It had hurt him a lot.

"So your father was your inspiration to pick up cybernetics?"

John nodded. "Mhm. He was always having issues with his body when I was younger... and he couldn't stay home with us because he couldn't find a job at a normal place... then he joined a PMC." John cut himself off there, didn't want to tell the man any more about it.

"A lot of Cyborgs had to take that path a few years ago. I am relieved that the stigma shifted. Now Cyborgs can work almost anywhere."

John nodded. He was glad about it too. His father would be happy about it, he was sure. There was still the issue about people not allowing Cyborgs to have certain rights, but he hoped that would change too.

"How's your AI project coming along, by the way?"

"Pretty good. My friend sent it to me yesterday. I need to test it a bit, but I can present it on Monday."

"That's good news. I like your Idea of showing that AI's are self-aware beings."

"Thanks." John smiled.

"That's a real downpour out there." Mister Scott then sighed. He had turned to the window, then shook his head and wiped the whiteboard clean.

John sent the Essay to his teacher and shut his laptop. He would probably stay in the building until the rain lessened a bit. He could still work on his plans from here, there was no real need to rush to the dorm.

"Can you bring these books to the library?" Mister Scott then asked and pointed to a stack of books. "If you're not busy with something else."

John nodded slightly. "Sure." He smiled, put his backpack on and grabbed the books. "Thanks for not getting too mad." He grinned into the direction of his teacher when he left the room.

Happily he walked into the library and returned the books, then went upstairs to one of the computer rooms and set up his laptop. Soon he realized he had forgotten to take the flash drive with him, stuffed the laptop back into his backpack and ran downstairs to get it. If anyone found that thing and used it, things could go bad. It initially was for a project, but anyone who knew something about it, could realize that it could do more than that.

When he reached the room it was empty, the flash-drive gone. John cursed loudly. Mister Scott must've taken it with him. hopefully to return it to him tomorrow, but the teen suddenly didn't trust him on that. It was still his project. The man shouldn't be able to tell what he was planning to use it for, yet, John didn't feel great about that at all. His heart was hammering against his chest. He was scared.

Sweat was building on his forehead when he dashed to the lounge the teachers usually stayed in. He ripped the door open without even knocking and several heads of people John didn't know, turned to look at him.

"...Herr Scott?!" John almost yelled, surprised he managed to find the right German words in this situation. He slipped back into his mother tongue every time he was upset. Lisa had made fun of him for that.

"Ist nicht hier." A woman answered him.

John cursed and left. He wasn't there. Where else? The cafeteria? John jumped down several steps to get faster to the basement level where the cafeteria was housed in. He saw Core at the far end, Lisa too. But no Mister Scott. Panic settled in then. John hissed curses at himself for being an idiot when he rushed out of the building into the pouring rain.

There was the parking lot, a few cars there. He saw a blond man at a black car, dressed in a black coat, and for a moment John felt as if he knew that hair color. It sent a jolt through him, a faint shred of weird hope in his state of agitation.

"Dad!" he shouted, but the man didn't turn, sat down in the car, shut the door and drove off.

John blinked, suddenly embarrassed and shocked. What had made him think that this man could have been his father? He dropped to his knees, still frustrated about the lost AI, but also angry about what had just happened.

"Are you losing your mind now?" he hissed at himself.

Slowly he got back to his feet, dragged himself back into the building and headed for the cafeteria. He sat down next to Core and Lisa who both stared at him in surprise.

Lisa immediately chatted away in German, but John didn't have the energy to understand the meaning in her words. When she realized she switched to English.

"What happened to you? You're drenched."

John shook his head. "I kind of lost the AI... I think Mister Scott took it with him, though."

Core laughed. "That's why you're so upset? You can just create a new one."

John dropped his head onto the table and took a deep breath. He was shaking, but not just because he was freezing. He was glad his friends believed that though, so he didn't have to explain anything.

"Core's right. Also, if Mister Scott has it, he'll return it to you tomorrow. I'm sure he just took it because he didn't want it to get lost."

John nodded and lifted his head again. "Yeah, you're right."

Lisa smiled warmly and handed him her hot chocolate. "Here."

"Thanks." He muttered, thought about indirect kisses when he took a sip from it. "Do you sometimes mistake strangers for people you know?" He asked silently when he had placed the cup back down.

Lisa nodded, Core shrugged. "All the time." Lisa laughed. "It's really embarrassing. One time I jumped at an old lady because I thought she was my grandma. Oma's not letting me hear the end of it."

John chuckled at that, suddenly didn't feel that bad about it anymore. Everyone was mistaking people for someone else sometimes. But this hair color... John frowned. It was probably dyed, just a coincidence. The man wasn't even tall enough.

"Did it happen to you?" Core asked with a smirk.

John laughed nervously. "I kinda... just mistook some guy for my dad. It's kind of awkward.

Core took a sip from his coke. "Did he notice?"

"I don't think so."

"Then forget about it." Lisa smiled. "Sometimes I see my mom everywhere, even though she's somewhere in France with that guy she found. I think it's normal."

John nodded. "Yeah..."

Once his friends were done eating they all headed to the subway as Lisa had an umbrella with her. She and Core didn't get off with him. Lisa gave him her umbrella, told him that the rain would probably have stopped by the time she was at her station. The umbrella was pink with white polka dots on it, but at the moment John couldn't care less.

Once he unlocked his room he dragged his laptop and tablet-pc out of the wet backpack and put a towel around the device, then changed clothing, switched his wallet and keys to a messenger bag that had bold letters on the flap saying _'Cybernetics Expert at work'_. He didn't like the bag, it was a joke gift from Lisa and Core for his birthday last year, but it had to do. He didn't want to run around with a wet backpack.

He slipped in the small notebook he almost never used and its charger, then the cell phone and his tablet-pc. He checked his pants for the public transport ticket, grabbed his own umbrella and set out again. He liked that umbrella. It had been expensive, but he enjoyed the black design with the milky-way on it.

When he went back to the subway station he gave Doktor a quick call, announcing that he would drop by for a quick visit and stepped into the subway train. The ride was long and boring, so John used it to message his mother. He liked that the time difference was exactly twelve hours, that made it easier for him to remember how late it was where his mother lived.

The woman was probably asleep, but he wasn't too bothered by it. He would get a reply sooner or later, still, he was a frustrated about losing the AI and about mistaking a stranger for a dead man.

Were Sunny's words and her information at fault for him being like that? He really didn't want to think about it anymore, yet his mind refused to let go of the matter. He was upset, finally wanted revenge, but he still had so much to take care off.

While he was sitting in the subway, waiting for the right stop, he made up a new plan. One Doktor had to agree on.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Vocabs in case they weren't clear:  
> Herr - Mister  
> Ist nicht hier - Isn't here.  
> Oma - Granny


	4. Chapter 4

Doktor was living in an old apartment in the outskirts of the city. John himself was staying in town, very close to the harbor. From his window he could actually see ships sometimes. I the beginning he had found it interesting to watch them, now they faded into the background. He barely saw them anymore if they happened to be there.

He made his way upstairs and Doktor let him into the apartment that always held some strange smell he couldn't quite place. Lisa once said that all old people's houses smelled weird. John wouldn't know. All old people he knew were dead, save for Doktor who was now well into his seventies and probably should have retired a long time ago. John was impressed that the man was still as agile as he had been ten years ago. He didn't look as if he was 74.

The man walked into the small kitchen, the window was decorated with leafs and the kitchen wall had a few more children's drawings on them. John was never sure who drew those pictures but sometimes he thought about the cyborg-kids, or children of Doktor's niece. John put his umbrella into the sink in the bathroom so it wouldn't wet the floors and followed the man. He sat down after he had gotten himself some coffee and stared outside. The apartment was on the third floor, it was still pouring outside and Doktor turned on the small light mounted under a cabinet.

"So what are your plans?" Doktor asked when he sat down at the table and played with the tag of the teabag in his cup.

John took a deep breath. "I...thought about it. Maybe... revenge is the wrong way." He muttered. "I think I should go apologize to Boris and Kevin. For being a bratty kid like that."

Doktor shook his head and furrowed his brows. "Why the change of heart?"

The teen sighed, knew Doktor would ask all kinds of questions, so he had prepared some answers while he was on the subway. "It kind of went the wrong way... I was upset, I didn't understand a thing. They were probably shocked too. But I still don't get why they would be involved in something like that. Maybe someone else sabotaged that report?"

Doktor stayed silent for a while, threw his teabag away and took a sip from the cup before he shook his head once more and looked at John. "I don't think it's a good idea to go there, or even talk to them."

"Why not?"

Doktor shoved the cup aside and placed his elbows on the table as he leaned in. "This has to stay between us, do not ever tell _anyone_  about what I am going to tell you now."

The teen perked up. What was going on now? Was there more to it? Did Doktor know something about it?

"Okay."

The older man nodded to himself, then stood and stared at the clock as he leaned against a counter. "What Sunny turned up is correct."

"What?! Why do you know that?!"

"Listen," Doktor muttered. "Maverick staged a setup to lure your father into a trap. He came talking to me about it because he had found it out."

"And he still walked straight into it?!" John shouted in anger. "He's not that stupid!"

Doktor shook his head. "No. He had no other choice. They were threatening to harm you and your mother if he didn't comply."

John opened his mouth to say something but couldn't find his voice. That was a whole new thing to him. He had never heard any of that before. His father had died protecting his family. He had willingly taken the risk of losing his life so his family would be safe. John suddenly found it really hard to keep looking at Doktor, blinked tears away and stared outside.

"But why would Maverick do that? I thought they were his friends!"

"Colleagues. A shallow relationship between people who would never understand him. He knew too much, so they got rid of him."

"Why?!" John cried. "He... he never did anything to harm them!"

Doktor smiled sadly. "He did, actually. But he did not know. No one knew. It is better not tell you about it, it is risky enough that _I_ know all these things. Please do never speak to anyone about this, John. If Maverick finds out I or someone else knows this, there will be more casualties."

"But what are we going to do? They need to be stopped!"

Doktor shook his head once more, smiled. "You have that strong sense of justice, too. It is a gift and a curse. We cannot do anything about Maverick. Any move against them would put at least four lives at risk."

"Four?"

"You, me, your mother, and a client of mine."

John frowned. "A client? Have you ever thought about retiring?"

"Not yet." Doktor laughed. "But I am just doing the maintenance on him. He used to work for Maverick too."

The teen lifted an eyebrow, suddenly curious. "And he knows about that too?"

Doktor sighed, reached over the table and took John's hands. "I'm sorry John, any more information about this and you're in danger. I really cannot tell you anything more, but _please_ do not engage Maverick. I am afraid they would try to harm you. Pretend you don't know anything, alright?"

"I gotta tell Sunny though. And... a friend of mine." John felt the color leave his face when he realized that. Maverick could already be on their move! Sunny was in danger! And Core too!

With trembling hands he pulled his tablet out of the bag and placed it on the table when he opened Skype and navigated to Sunny's contact data. "Whatever you do, please stop looking into Maverick." He told her. She was offline, asleep. Probably.

He sent the same message to Core who promptly replied with a 'alright alright'.

"What am I going to do now?" He then asked Doktor, suddenly didn't want to go back to the dorm. Every person seemed like a potential threat to him. Really, anyone could be working for Maverick.

"Nothing." Doktor said. "Continue your life as you would without that information."

John scoffed. "That's kind of hard... they killed him."

Doktor sighed, a sad smile on his lips. "If there was anything to be done, I would have. My client seeks revenge as well. I have told him the same. It is not worth to put more lives at risk."

John nodded, suddenly determined to find out what exactly Maverick had done that was so bad that they needed to kill people who knew about it. But he also liked his life enough to just give up on the plan.

"And this client... can I talk to him?"

Doktor sighed. "I am afraid not. I wish I could tell you more about it, John. I really wish I could." Doktor's warm smile turned into a sad one. "It is better to leave him alone with it. He lost a lot to that company." The man muttered with slight anger in his voice.

"Alright..."

When he went back home and reached his room he felt watched. Even though he wouldn't have any more lectures today he packed his laptop into the messenger bag, a bottle of water and a few granola bars before he set out again, this time to the college. There were people he knew, people who couldn't be working for Maverick. He was sure Core and Lisa were normal people.

When he reached the college everything looked normal. A few groups of people, the same as usual. John casually walked into the building, extremely on edge but tried not to let it show. He went for the computer-room on the third floor. It was almost empty, only two others sitting there. The young woman was someone who showed up in science a lot, the man at the far end was someone John didn't know.

The teen settled down in a corner, back to the wall as he pulled a bean bag over there and sat down, laptop on his lap. Sunny had replied to his message. A simple 'Ok. Rpl ltr.'. She did that when she got messaged in the middle of the night. He sighed in relief. Sunny was alright.

He deleted his browser history and went about browsing for the project he was working on, when there was suddenly a commotion outside. Dread filled John's insides when the two people in the room left to see what was happening in the hall.

John leaned over the rail to peer down into the entrance hall, saw a  Core and someone else punching each other in their faces, a small group of people around them. They encouraged the two to hit harder. Then out of nowhere two more teens joined the two and suddenly it turned into a group fight. In the middle of the Entrance hall.

A lot of students were leaning over the rails to see what was going on, but no one dared to step in. The Security guards were probably outside guarding the building as they usually did. He rarely saw them inside. They were working for a very small German PMC, and all John had ever see them do was scold people for smoking in areas where it wasn't allowed or refused to let people in who couldn't prove that they had to be at this building. The level of security was actually quite high. John scoffed when he remembered. Anyone who would come looking for him would have to get past the guards first.

"What is this nonsense about?" A low voice suddenly echoed in the hall

Mister Scott walked up to the group, and suddenly got assaulted by the three teens that had been punching Core just seconds ago. John wasn't sure what to do, he wanted to help, but he was also afraid to step in.  Why was Mister Scott so reckless and just walked up to them? But he was a teacher and teachers were required to do that.

Someone landed a punch to the man's cheekbone and he stumbled backwards before he finally managed to get in between the group and broke them up.

"Enough!" he shouted.

Mister Scott and the teens were staring at each other, John almost found it funny. It looked like a scene from a western movie, and yet it had this seriousness to it. The two people that had been on the same floor with him had left already and John made his way downstairs. He saw Core limping away from the group when one of them suddenly grabbed him again and punched him straight into the face so that he fell backwards and landed on the ground.

The attacker was then grabbed by the collar and the other two jumped at the teacher while John went to his friend and dragged him over to the staircase to be out of the fighting area.

"Core, you okay?" John asked silently

"Yeah..." The brown haired man rubbed his face, winced.

"What happened? Why'd they attack you?"

Core shrugged. "There's just some Jealous jerk who thought I was hitting on his girl."

"Really now?" John asked in disbelief. "What is this? Kindergarten?"

They went silent when the teens got loud again.

"Enough I said!" Mister Scott yelled. They immediately shut up then. No one wanted that man to be angry.  It was as if he was a completely different person when he snapped. "I don't want to know who started it, I only want to know what you were thinking! This is a _School_ not a War Zone!"

John almost laughed when the three quite bulky teens looked like little children scolded for breaking something.

"You three go outside and cool down. No more fighting, you hear me? Otherwise I'll have you suspended!"

The teens silently left the building and everyone else went about their daily activities again. Core scoffed. Mister Scott walked up to them, a bruise on his cheek, but it would heal. The man's eyes looked blue for a moment, but John wasn't sure if he had imagined it as the color was back to their usual dark brown the moment his conscious thinking took note of it.

"You two okay?" He asked when he reached into his pocket and handed John his flash-drive "Here, you left it lying around."

"...T-Thanks." John muttered, stared at his teacher. He still couldn't quite believe what had just happened.

Mister Scott crouched down in front of Core, carefully examined the bruised face of the young man. "Doesn't look too bad. You should go see the nurse though. I'd like to see you at my office once you're done there, Mister Winter."

Core nodded and John watched the man walk away to the restrooms.

"Damn it all." Core finally managed to say after he had found his voice again. "Hope he's not too angry at me."

"I don't think you did anything wrong, you didn't start it, right?"

"Yeah..."

"He's always trying to be fair to everyone, so don't worry about it." John smiled.

"I wish he was younger." A silent female voice muttered behind them. Lisa.

John almost scoffed, but kept the reply to himself. Lisa took on the task of taking Core to the nurse and so John was left alone. Just when he was about to get back to his laptop he saw something yellow lying on the floor, where the fight had been. He went over to it and picked it up, noticed it was a keychain. There seemed to have been writing on it once but it was faded and scratched. The hole where the ring had been attached was broken off and over all that yellow rectangle of a key chain looked really old and plain. The edges were uneven and the sides had tiny chunks missing.

He wondered who it belonged to and decided to drop it off at the lost and found box once he had gathered his laptop, then went to one of the rest areas that had separate cabins. He sat down on the cushions on the floor, but instead of taking out his laptop he inspected the keychain once more. Something about it felt familiar. Uncle Snake had one like these once, just in a different color. And His dad too. He shrugged. A lot of people had key chains like these.

He couldn't spend much more time on it when Core walked past the area, and barged into the room after he had noticed John. He had a sheet of paper in his hand and a band-aid on his cheek.

"I'm getting suspended for a week..." The other male sighed.

"What? Why? The fight wasn't your fault."

"It wasn't about the fight. I told him about the hacking stuff... It's not going to show up in my file, he said, but I broke school rules and blah, blah."

"I told you not to tell anyone!" John yelled at him.

"It's too late now. But one week of catching up with homework and watching cheesy horror stories, here I come."

"Don't tell me you wanted to get suspended..."

Core shrugged. "I'll see you in a week." The man grinned and walked away. "Oh and, he wants to talk to you too, J."

John nodded, packed his things once more and walked into the office of his teacher, surprised at how cleaned up it was. He hadn't been here for longer than a few minutes so he never paid much attention to the surroundings. There was barely anything lying around. Just a cup of coffee from the café at the corner of the subway-station, and a lot of pens and pencils in a cup. Even Doktor's office looked more clattered, and that man was already really strict when it came to messes.

"Mister Winter told me about your _plans_ to hack a certain PMC." The man gestured to the chair, wordlessly told John to sit down.

John's eyes were glued to the man's face when he sat down. The bruise was still there, the eyes still dark. He must have had imagined it earlier.

He was sure he was in a lot of trouble now though. "I... I'm sorry." The teen muttered.

"What were you thinking?" the man sighed. He sounded defeated and disappointed.

John sighed, slumped back into the chair. "I didn't think about what I was doing..."

The man ran a hand through his dark hair. "I should probably suspend you for breaking the school rules. This can get you kicked out of here, you know? Maverick Security Consulting is nothing to take lightly, though."

John frowned. What was that supposed to mean and why did the man know about it? Suddenly he was afraid. The things he had learned about Maverick just earlier were terrible enough, now he was getting suspended, possibly get kicked out of college for a stupid thing he didn't think through?

John felt cold, alone. Tears burned in his eyes. "I just... A friend found out who killed my father and..."

"You possibly got one of the biggest PMC's on you because you didn't think it through." Mister Scott sighed with an almost amused smile. "So, what are you going to do about it?"

John helplessly threw his arms in the air. "I don't know! ...I didn't do anything... Core didn't even get through!"

"He told me they shut down his laptop, that means they know. And if you're unlucky they already got a trace."

"How do you know all that?"

The man took a deep breath, leaned back in his chair. "PMC's work like that. They're all the same. I had trouble with one a while ago. Let a bunch of people down to save them and myself."

"I'm sorry..."  John apologized, fear only growing. What was he supposed to do? He didn't know all the things that Maverick had possibly done when he had called Core the other day.

Mister Scott sighed and leaned forward again. "Apologizing is not going to help in this situation."

John grimaced. "And I am supposed to run away?" He couldn't do that to his mother. She had already lost her husband.

Mister Scott shook his head. "You'll continue your everyday life as usual."

"I can't do that!" John protested. "What if they... found out where I live?"

"This is unlikely, for now." The man sighed. "However, they might have gotten a trace of your friend, looked at the list of students."

John chewed on his lip, unsure. "...My dad worked for them... they'd know my name."

The man nodded. "Wait in the hall for a bit I'll come up with something.

"O-Okay..."

Confused John left the room sat down on one of the chairs in the hallway.  He sighed, rested his head on his knees. What was he going to do now though? It all felt unreal to him. Why would a PMC go after a teenager who had nothing to do with anything they were involved in? To silence him about what he had found out? But there was no one who would believe him. But he was still related to his father, maybe that was enough to kill him.

When the door of the office opened half an hour later, John jumped to his feet in fear.

"Don't be so on edge." Mister Scott smiled.

John sheepishly put the hands into the pockets of his pants, noticed the keychain he had still in there. Slowly he pulled it out.

"I found that in the entrance hall earlier, is that yours?"

Mister Scott's eyes widened, and carefully took it into his hands as if it was something incredibly delicate. "Yeah. Thanks for finding it, thought I lost it."

John nodded. "Looks really old." He mentioned.

Mister Scott chuckled. "My son gave it to me."

"Oh. I didn't know you have kids."

"He's around your age." The man smiled. "Haven't spoken to him properly in quite a while."

"Why?" John asked silently.

The man held up the keychain and lightly hit John's shoulder with it. "This is all I can tell you, Mister Sears. It's for your own safety."

"What do you mean?" John was confused, not quite getting what the man was trying to tell him.

Mister Scott laughed silently. "I found a place where you can stay at until things are sorted out. Come."

John blinked in confusion and followed the man. He had dodged that question so elegantly that John almost didn't realize he hadn't answered it.

He followed the man into the parking lot, eyed the black car of the man with a lifted eyebrow. It had finally stopped raining, the car was still wet though. Mister Scott told him to get in the car and the teen did as told, put the seatbelt on after he had closed the door and was remotely surprised when the man left the city and headed for the outskirts of the town.

"You'll stay at my place." The man finally explained.

John blinked in surprise, suddenly getting suspicious. "What?"

The man laughed. "Relax. I'm not going to do anything to you, if anything I'll protect you from getting killed. That's all."

"You haven't told me why."

"Think of the keychain."

"Why can't you just tell me?"

The man sighed. "I'd blow my cover if I did. It took a lot to break free of that PMC."

John glared at the dashboard. "Fine. Can I asked something though?"

"You can ask anything. I won't answered everything."

John growled silently. "It's kind of a stupid thing to ask, but you said you were involved with a PMC and... Did you know my dad?"

A shadow casted over the man's face and a long silence followed. John had already given up on getting an answer when the man finally replied.

"...I did."

John had not expected that answer. He was surprised now. "Is that why you're helping me?"

The man nodded.  "Part of it."

John sighed, hugged his bag and watched the streets as the sun slowly set and submerged the city in a dark blue. It looked nice, John usually enjoyed it, it reminded him of the time in New York, yet today he had no eyes for that.

"You're really weird, has anyone ever told you that?"

Mister Scott laughed loudly at that. "I heard that one quite a lot, yeah."

"...What are we going to do about Maverick?"

The man took his eyes off the road for a second and John found that his smirk seemed strangely familiar.

"Nothing."

"Nothing?" John repeated in disbelief.

The man shook his head and pulled into a parking lot. It had started to rain again and he cursed silently. By now it was dark outside.

"Engaging them would put others at risk."

John sighed. "Dok said the same..."

"And he is right. They're a threat to anyone. Got even bigger than World Marshal over the past ten years."

"And then they tried to get rid of everyone who questioned them." The man said, then handed John a key.

"Here, I'll park the car somewhere else. It's the last apartment on the top floor. Hard to miss."

"Okay..." John muttered and left the car, bag over his shoulder and made his way to the building. Mister Scott pulled out of the parking lot and drove away. John wasn't sure why he needed to park somewhere else, but he was too tired to question it once he had figured out which key fit in the entrance door and called the elevator.

Once upstairs he walked down a long corridor and was greeted with a door that didn't have a name in the nametag under the doorbell. He frowned, but they key fit, so he didn't question it. Maybe the tag had fallen out. They liked to do that.

The apartment was dark and while John tried to locate a light switch in the unfamiliar hallway, he was jumped at by something. He suppressed a scream and hit the light switch, breathes a sigh of relief when he realized that it was a cat.

So the man had a cat. That was something. The fur was snow white and it had blue eyes. John crouched down to pet it but it ran away, so he took off his shoes, closed the front door and silently peeked into the rooms. The apartment was tiny he noticed. Living room and bedroom, a small bathroom that had a shower instead of a bathtub and a tiny kitchen. He decided to sit in the living room, noticed a few framed pictures on a bookshelf. They were so dusty that John couldn't see the people on them and just when he was about to reach out for them, the front door opened and John jumped backwards, suddenly felt like he shouldn't be here at all.

"Ah found the living room already." Mister Scott smiled. "You'll sleep there. Don't really have a spare room I could give to you."

"I-it's okay." John stuttered. Still slightly uncomfortable about the whole situation.

"Mary... where'd you go?" the man then suddenly said and disappeared into the hallway. John assumed he meant the cat.

John wasn't sure what he was supposed to do at all, so he sat down on the couch, stared out of the window of the 5th floor. The other man came back with the cat on his shoulders, smiled.

"Make yourself at home."

"Isn't this kind of against the school rules?"

The man shrugged. "I'd rather be suspended than have one of my students killed."

"What about Core... or my friend in the states?"

"Mister Winter is not alone at his place. I assume your friend is living with someone else too."

John nodded. "True... so you took me in because I'm alone? Or is there more to it?"

The man smiled. "I can't tell you. You just have to trust me on that."

"Alright..."

"I'll be heading out for groceries, there's nothing edible for you in the fridge. I'll be back in about an hour."

John only nodded, watched the man leave. All of this seemed fishy. Why was the only solution the man came up with to have him here? When he was sure the man had left, he went to the kitchen and opened the fridge to see if the man had been telling the truth. The fridge really was almost completely empty, save for a packages in the back of it. John didn't need to take them out to know immediately what they were.

Nutrition packs for cyborgs.

So the rumors _were_ true.

John wandered back to the living room, realizing how hungry he was when he opened his bag and took a granola bar out. The cat then jumped on one of the shelves and knocked a picture down in the process. John barely made it in time to catch it, accidentally brushed over the dusty glass and revealed the person on the picture.

John then almost dropped it.

The woman in that picture was his mother, no doubt about it.

 

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Everyone who still has no idea: COOKIES FOR YOU. LOADS AND LOADS OF COOKIES :D


	5. Chapter 5

John covered his mouth with one hand when he sank to his knees, let the picture clatter to the ground. The cat looked confused for a moment, but John didn't pay attention to it. Why did this man have a picture of his mother? He shot up, went to the other pictures and cleaned the dust off of them. There was another of his mother, and a third. And one of him.

John gaped.

Was that man a stalker? Was he perhaps working for maverick himself? Had he waited for this opportunity to get at him? Was he really a teacher at all? John darted for his bag to get his cell phone and call Doktor when he heard the front door unlock. He held his breath, not sure what to do.

The man walked in with two plastic bags, sat them down in the hallway and closed the front door, the cat already all over him again when he locked the front door and put the chain in.

John was frozen in place, unable to move. Would the man kill him? Would he poison the food? He needed to get out of here, but the only obvious escape was the window. No normal human would survive a fall from the fifth floor.

"Are you-" The man poked his head into the living room, saw the cleaned frames, and the picture on the ground. He chuckled, a warm smile on his face. "Figured it out?"

John backed away, face pale, eyes wide. The man was going to kill him. He was a cyborg, he was able to do that without even putting strength into his moves. John knew how the parts worked, how they enhanced people's movements and overall doubled or tripled the strength in most cyborgs.

John grabbed his bag, dragged his laptop out and threw it at the man. "Stay away!" He screamed. "I won't let you kill me!"

The man caught the laptop and carefully put it aside only to get hit in the head be John's cell phone. It clattered to the ground and the cat darted away.

"Calm down." The man said calmly, lifted his hands slightly.

"You lured me here to kill me! Didn't you?!" The tablet pc followed, this time the man dodged. It fell to the ground with a crack, the screen shattered.

"What?" The man blinked in surprise. "John-"

"Don't use my first name! Let me out of here! I'll call the police!"

The man took a deep breath. "I'm not going to harm you."

John frowned. His voice had changed. It was higher now, not by much but it sounded completely different.

 The teen rummaged around in his bag to find anything else to throw at the man, but only grabbed the last two granola bars. In a desperate attempt to get out of the apartment he just threw those at him and fired the bag after him before he dashed past the man.

His wrist was grabbed before he even left the living room and John, suddenly thrown into panic, took his keys out of his pocket and lunged at the man's face. The key's collided with the man's forehead, left a slight bleeding gash. John lashed out again, this time punched his head, grabbed his hair and yanked hard on it.  Mister Scott hissed and grabbed John's arm with his free hand to prevent him from lashing out a third time. The man's  eye color flickered to a pale blue and the dark hair suddenly turned blond. The face shape changed a little and a scar became visible across the man's face.

John couldn't breathe for a moment, his chest felt tight and over all he was too shocked to do anything other than gasp in surprise.

"...You..." John dropped the keys and the man released him.

"...You broke the face-camo."  The man smiled nervously, wordlessly picked up the phone and the tablet, carefully placed them on the coffee table.

John felt his eyes sting, fill with tears. He tried to blink them away but they had already dropped onto his shirt, leaving dark stains. He shook his head, wiped the tears away with his sleeve and stood. "...This... you... can't be... real?" John croaked.

"It's okay. I'll explain." The man said silently.

John couldn't believe it. "How.... how..." His hands trembled and he felt incredibly cold. How was that possible?! His father was dead! He had seen his head... and they had taken all his belongings... and his body. They had only given them the head. The teen shook his head, flinched violently when the man dragged a woolen blanket over his shoulders.

"Are you... r-really?"

The man sighed deeply, nodded slightly.

The teen swallowed hard.

"I'll explain. But I want you to calm down first."

John nodded, stood when the man did and followed him to the hallway. The man went to the bathroom, rummaged through some drawers and treated the small sound on his forehead. John was leaning against the doorframe, his legs trembling, hands holding the blanket tightly around him.

"I know you have a lot of questions." The man muttered.

"J-Just one at the moment..." John whispered. His voice trembled as badly as the rest of his body. "D-Does mom know?"

The blond man smiled sadly and shook his head. "No."

John hung his shoulders, turned around a little too fast and almost lost balance. He hit the wall if the hallway, grunted.

"You okay?"

The teen scoffed. "Don't pretend as if nothing happened." He turned to stare at the other man. John noted that they were almost the same height. "You can't just _expect_ me to be fine!" He yelled.

"I don't."

"When were you planning to tell me, huh?! Do you even know what the hell was going on at home?!"

"John..." The man placed a hand on his shoulder but John pushed him away.

"Don't touch me! Go away!"

"I know you're angry, but hear me-"

"No! You left us alone! You... You tricked me! The whole time! The nice teacher act, everything! You knew who I was! You used me!  You _betrayed_ me!"

"John, I-"

"Shut the _hell_ up!" John screamed. "You're the worst!" tears stung in his eyes again, he couldn't do anything about it. "You know nothing! I admired you, but you're an asshole! A fucking asshole! I am ashamed to call you my father!"

John's eyes widened when he realized what he had just said, but he wasn't going to take it back. He was way too angry to regret his words. Only when the man's brows furrowed and he bit hard on his lip as he turned away with an expression as if he was going to cry, John realized that he had said too much. Way too much.

Still, angry as he was he just darted for the front door, turned the keys the man had left there, took the chain off and dashed outside. The man rushed after him, took a few steps at a time. John knew he would catch up to him, there was no point in running but he couldn't really help it.

"John! Come back here!" the man hissed, tried to be as silent as possible and still reach the teen with his words.

"Like hell! Go screw yourself!"

John stopped in his tracks when the man was suddenly behind him, grabbed his wrists. Instantly he tried to wiggle free.

"Let go of me. I'll scream."

"Just hear me out! After that you can go!"

John spat into his face, used the moment of surprise to get his hands free and darted into an alley.

He wasn't sure where he was going, didn't know this part of the city, and he didn't even have the subway ticket or his keys or his cell phone.

"Fuck this shit!" he cursed loudly when he realized he had no idea where he was, it was raining like no tomorrow, and he had possibly an angry Cyborg and a whole PMC on his ass. Why was he never thinking his actions through. Damn he had attacked his father. Humiliated him in the middle of the streets, possibly blown his cover too.

"Shit!" he cursed once more, turned around and tried to backtrack the way he had come from. It wasn't easy in the darkness of the streets and he almost screamed when someone suddenly jumped down the building next to him.

For a second he thought it was his father, was getting ready to throw more insults at him, when a fist barely missed him. He stepped back, stared at the attacker. It was a run down cyborg, wires sizzling around his arms and legs, he had a distorted grin on his face and John suddenly felt as if he had made a very big mistake by running into this alley.

The cyborg was about to throw another punch when something suddenly collided with his head and he sank to the ground, unconscious. Behind him John saw the cyborg he had initially been running from, with a pipe in his hand, holding it as if it was a sword.

"...Did you kill him?"

The man glared at him and dropped the pipe. "No."

John scoffed and crouched down to make sure. The cyborg really was still alive, no visible injury. "Don't think I'm coming with you."

"You left all your stuff at my place." The man tried to argue.

John crossed his arms. "I'll have Core get it for me."

"And how will you get home?"

John growled. "I walk!"

"John this is ridiculous."

"Your face is ridiculous!" John shouted back. "Go home! Leave me alone!"

"John!" the man's voice echoed through the alley. Loud and angry. "Just hear me out!"

"Why should I? You're a liar! A traitor! And you're insane! I _fucking_ hate you!"

"Yeah..." The man muttered silently, leaned against the wall and hung his head, shook it. "I... guess I deserve that."

"Damn right you are." John growled. "Now leave me alone. I have nothing to say to you."

John watched the man leave the alley and exited it on the other side. He was freezing, clothing drenched, and nowhere to go.

He regretted his words now. Why had he said all these things?! "Stupid...!" He hissed at himself. The man must have had a reason for doing what he had done. What had Dok said? His father had found out something he wasn't supposed to know.

But why had he never contacted them? Why did he pretend to be his teacher when he wasn't... "Damn..." John wrapped his arms around him, tried to warm himself up a bit when a voice sounded behind him.

"Hear me out, John. That's all I'm asking." The voice was trembling.

John turned, stared at the man. His hair was glued to his face, eyes directed to the ground.

"I can go home after that?"

"Of course. I wasn't trying to keep you here against your will..."

John scoffed, but followed the man back into the apartment. He then realized he hadn't even been wearing shoes.

He stood in the hallway, drenched to the bone, unsure what to do when the man came back with a T-shirt and some sweatpants that were at least two sizes too big for the teen. He didn't care when he took them and headed to the bathroom to change.

He locked the door just in case and took off his wet clothing. There was a towel hanging over where a mirror should be. Curiously John lifted the towel a bit, but there was nothing under it except for a plain and boring mirror. Why was the towel over it though?

Shaking his head he changed into the pants and shirt, realized the man had also put a pullover onto the pile. Seeking the warmth John quickly put it on. The smell wasn't familiar at all, but at the moment he couldn't care less.

"I'm the worst..." John whispered to himself when he gathered the clothing and put it over the tiny heater in the bathroom. He then also realized how cold the apartment was. Thought the man probably didn't need a heater. That thought had something to it that made John shiver.

How long had it been since the man had had anyone in his apartment? Had there ever been one besides the cat? How long since he had had a decent conversation? The whole apartment looked empty. There was barely anything that made it a home. No decorations, just the four pictures on the almost empty bookshelf. No things lying around anywhere. The Kitchen had also looked as if it had never been used.

The man probably didn't feel the need to cook for himself. Not that he needed it for nutrition, but John knew how much he had liked to spend time with his family at the dining table, even when he didn't eat.

John bit his lip, knew that everything he had shouted at the man hadn't been fair. He was probably suffering too.

He went back to the living room and suddenly had the cat on his lap when he sat down on the couch. He carefully pet it for a while, noticed that the motion calmed him down a little. His anger was almost completely gone when the man came back with a steaming mug and sat it on the coffee table in front of John before he sat down on the couch.

"Trying to bribe me with hot chocolate?" John mentally cursed himself. Why couldn't he just apologize?! The man had even put sprinkles on top.

The man flinched. "No... I just... you...you used to like that stuff..." He didn't seem to know what to do with his hands and so he just folded them and stared at the ground. An awkward silence surrounded them.

"I... I'm sorry." The man whispered after a while. "I lied to you... to everyone. You're right. I _am_ the worst."

John reached out to him, but took his hand back before he made contact with the man's shoulder. He shook his head to himself, then sighed and finally put the hand on the man's shoulder. "...No... I... said too much. _I'm_ sorry..."

The man gently placed a hand over John's hand, squeezed it and turned his head away. John wasn't entirely sure what was happening when the man slowly let go of his hand, ran the sleeves of his shirt over his face and looked at John again.

John saw it then, the sadness, the longing. The man had been alone for four years, with no one bothering to see if he was alright at all. Maybe Dok cared, but John knew how important his family was to him. He couldn't imagine how hard it must have been, knowing that they were there but with no way of telling them that he was alright.

"You've been alone the whole time...?" John asked silently, nut yet sure how to go about it.

The man didn't reply right away. It seemed as if he needed to collect his thoughts first. "I..." his voice refused to come out and he had to start again. "It's... okay. I got used to it..."

John frowned in concern, noticed that the hands of the man were trembling and he was trying hard to not let it show. The teen knew it was a side effect of extreme build up of emotions, by now. Certain cyborg bodies could suppress it, but even some of the top tier ones were unable to go against emotions this strong.

At that moment, John could only imagine how painful it must have been to hold back all of it the whole time. To pretend he was always happy. He really pulled the teacher act so good, John would have never guessed. And yet...

"I..." The man muttered and stood. "I need a moment..." John watch him leave the living room, but followed him silently.  He went to the bedroom, shut the door.

John was left alone in the dark hallway, the cat walked pat him, opened the door and slipped into the bedroom. Curious John came closer, carefully looked into the almost completely dark room. There was a small lamp on a nightstand, giving off a soft and calming light, but John had no eyes for that when he was the man sitting on the floor, arms wrapped around the cat and tears streaming down his face as he tried to cry as soundlessly as possible.

John sank to his knees, one hand still on the door handle. He didn't want to startle the man or bother him, but John wasn't sure if it was a good idea to just leave him alone. What was he supposed to do? He wasn't Rose. He couldn't help with nice words and ideas.

"D-" John bit his tongue. Was it alright to accept that the man was his father? The whole time he had believed him to be just a teacher he had actually been someone he thought was dead? He still felt betrayed, used. But how else was he going to call that man? Nothing seemed right anymore.

"...Are you okay?" John asked instead. It came out colder and more distant than he wanted.

"Yeah..." was the silent reply. "Go back... I'll be fine."

John lingered in the doorway for a little longer before he nodded and headed back to the living room. He picked up his phone, checked his messages, but couldn't really concentrate on them. His keys were still on the floor, the back and the two granola bars next to it. Slowly he picked them up, stuffed them back into his bag, then he noticed the tablet and cursed as he sat on the couch.

"Shit... I need this thing..."

"You could repair it on your own, right?" His father said silently when he walked into the living room. He was sort of pale, but looked okay otherwise. The cat was on his shoulders again, jumped down and settled on John's lap.

Surprised the teen ran his hand through the soft fur. "...Yeah. Need the parts though..."

"Ask Dok."

John nodded, watched the man as he sat down on the couch next to him. A long silence surrounded them. John noticed that the man was still trembling, but not as badly as before. "...Are you okay?" John asked once more.

He only got a nod as answer.

"So... what that's big story...? Why are you here? Why did you lie?"

Another moment of silence followed, then the man slowly began to speak. "I... found out something about Maverick... that I shouldn't have." The man muttered. "I confronted Boris about it... next thing I knew they sent me on a mission that I couldn't manage alone."

"But..."

The man smiled sadly. "The night before I met up with Dok for maintenance... we always spoke about tons of things, but they had me under complete surveillance that night. Usually they let me off the hook once the missions were over, but they didn't that night. You know how that surveillance system works, don't you?"

John scratched his head nervously. "W-well... Lisa and I developed one for a project a while ago and tested it on one of the guards who was willing to play guinea pig. It's beyond creepy." The teen muttered. "You can control anything. Even remote control is possible!..."

"Dok and I were communicating through notes the whole time on that evening. By the end of it we had a basic plan together. And the whole room was decorated with post it's that made no sense to an outsider..."

John picked up the cup and took a sip from the hot chocolate, then. The taste calmed him.  Still, the trembling hadn't subsided yet and he almost dropped the cup on the cat when it moved.

His father instantly grabbed the cup to steady it, shooed the cat away. It jumped onto his shoulder and curled up there.

John smiled at it, put the cup back on the table. "And then?"

"Dok prepared a dummy. He replicated a head that looked just like mine in just one night..."

"That's creepy." John commented.

"Yeah, you buried it." Jack said, a small smile on his lips. "Dok managed to get me disconnected from the body before the explosion hit-"

"...How-"

The man shrugged. "I have no idea, I wasn't exactly conscious when it all went down, I only know what Dok told me."

John reached for the cup again, took another sip. "So then he prepared that dummy and ...you were lying around there. As a head." John concluded.

"You'd have to ask him on the details, but I guess that's how it went. While Maverick was busy retrieving their mutilated cyborg, Dok escaped with me..." John saw him grimace. "That's how it went... kind of."

John took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "That's just insane..."

"I didn't want to tell you like this, but when your friend told me about your plans I really had to stop you..."

"How did you end up here of all places though?" John wanted to know.

"Dok thought it was the safest place for now. He stopped working with Maverick soon after I moved here... new identity... top tier face camo that has more flaws then the first body had..., and a nice job..."

"...You're a good teach- Damn I showed you that embarrassing essay!" John blushed turned away from the man.

"I liked it."

"'Course you would... And you still don't want to do anything about Maverick?"

"Taking on Maverick would be like starting a war."

"Do you really like looking like an old geezer?"

Jack scoffed. "The face-camo malfunctions quite often. _Especially_ when it rains. And when angry teens punch me in the face."

John sighed, reached out to pet the cat a little more. "Sorry about that..."

"Can't blame you for it. You pack quite the punch though."

John chewed on his lip for a moment. "Mom forced me to take self defense classes."

The man smiled.

"It won't go back to how it was before." John muttered.

"I wasn't expecting it to."

The teen then stood, cup in his hands, blanket still over his shoulder. "When was the last time you had  dinner with someone?"

"Too long..."

John rolled his eyes. "Living of nutrition packs alone is dull. When was the last time you had Pizza, a hamburger... a hotdog!"

"It's not like I need it, and without anyone to share with, why?"

John shook his head and headed into the kitchen. He quickly opened all cabinets and drawers to memorize where everything was. The man barely had anything in that kitchen.

"What are you doing?" His father asked when he peeked into the kitchen.

"I'm hungry." John sighed, looked into the two plastic bags the man hat put on the counter. "...I think I can fix something out of this stuff."

"...I can help... I-if you want to."

"Nah. I think you need to grade some essays."

John silently cursed when the man turned away and headed for the living room once more. He had looked so hopeful just seconds ago.

"Forget about it." He muttered to himself, then started to gather the items he would need. His father really had bought a lot of random things.

The cat joined him in the kitchen after a while, jumped on a counter to watch what he was doing. John assumed that it had never seen anyone cook in that kitchen. When it tried to peek into the steaming pots John showed it away.

"That's hot you dumb thing!"

The cat mewled silently and sat down right next to the stove. "Go away damn it... that's not for you!"

"There should be cat-food somewhere in the bags." He heard the man say from the living room.

John grumbled, located the cat food and filled the small plate on the floor with it. The cat instantly darted for it, and John could finally go about finishing the spaghetti ha was trying to cook. It was the only thing he managed without ruining it.  

When he was done twenty minutes later he realized it was too much for him alone an in an attempt to apologize for his actions earlier he filled two plates and carried them into the living room.

The look on his father's face was something John wouldn't forget that fast. He saw the blue eyes fill with tears again, but this time he was able to suppress it. "You... didn't have to..."

"Just leave it if you don't want to... I'm sorry for punching you and saying all those stupid things... I..."

The man shook his head, shut the laptop and took one of the plates.

"But that doesn't mean I forgive you!" John quickly added.

"I don't expect you to..."

 


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am so happy about all the comments, guys :D  
> *gives candy to all of you*

After dinner John did the dishes and lingered in the kitchen for a while longer. He glanced out of the window onto the dark streets, could hear his father type on the laptop in the living room, mutter to himself on occasion. To the teen it all still felt strange.

So there was his father. Alive.

He sighed, cleaned up the rest of the kitchen and went back to the living room. There wasn't really much he could do in the tiny apartment. The man didn't even have a TV! John wasn't sure what to think about that. The man used to love watching movies. He could probably watch them on a laptop, yet the simple lack of this one object, made the man seem like a whole different person.

His father was sitting at the desk in the corner of the living room, faced the bright screen of the laptop. He was so absorbed into the work that he jumped when John accidentally ran into the coffee table.

"I'm sorry..." The man apologized. "You need to be up early tomorrow, right?"

John hadn't even paid attention to the time. It was way past eleven by now, and he hadn't done a single piece of homework at all. "It's okay... I need to get homework done anyway.."

His father turned to him and opened his mouth, then closed it and turned away again. John was sure he wanted to say something, but he didn't pry when he started up his own laptop and opened his science-homework. He saw the man move slightly from time to time, type into the laptop, grunt or chuckle. Sometimes he shook his head, petted the cat that was curled up on the desk.

John caught himself staring at the man. He looked like his father, he did the same things... but this man seemed so different. Almost like a stranger. The teen knew that the four years they had lost weren't easily brought back. John had grown up to be a young man now, he lived his own life and got by pretty well on his own. On the breaks between semesters he worked in various places to stock up his funds and overall he had focused so much on studying and projects that he barely had anytime to bond with anyone.

 He wasn't going to get his homework done tonight, he realized then. It wasn't the first time he had missed something, it would be okay. Hopefully.

"I'll move to the bedroom if you want to sleep." His father muttered when John was glancing at him again.

Immediately he shook his head, not quite sure why. Maybe he was afraid the man would just disappear if he let him out of sight. John scoffed at his thoughts. That was ridiculous. This wasn't a dream, that was pretty obvious, and still he wanted to hold on to this moment, afraid it would just go away and never come back.

"No." John muttered, chewed on his lip. "Stay here..."

The man nodded with a small smile underneath all the sadness and just continued to work. John then went to the bathroom, skipped the shower. He could still do it in the morning. Maybe his clothing was dry by then. He really wasn't eager to walk into the college looking a hippie. Still, the clothing was probably his father's. Who else would they belong to? He noticed the man had put his clothing on a few hangers and turned on the heater in the bathroom so they would dry quicker. The towel was still over the mirror.

John realized he had no toothbrush with him and sighed, then shrugged and left the bathroom, turned off the light and almost screamed in surprise when his father walked past him in the dark hallway.

"God!" John hissed. "You scared the hell out of me!"

The man grimaced, turned his gaze to the floor. "I'm... not used to have people around... I'm sorry."

The teen shook his head. "Sorry for freaking out." The man was moving almost soundlessly. He had always done that. John was never sure how he was able to do that, but he did. It had made hide and seek a lot more fun. The man usually hid in weird places anyway. And cardboard boxes. John had learned quickly to check any cardboard box if they played hide and seek.

That had been so long ago when they had last done that.

The smile John got was fake. He returned to the living room, the man's laptop was still on the desk, still showing some essays. John briefly wondered what the man was doing in the bedroom when he sat down on the couch again. He realized how tired he was now, the whole day had been extremely stressful and that evening topped all of it.

When the man returned to the living room John was about to fall asleep while sitting up.

"John, go sleep." His father muttered. "You're suspended anyway."

John blinked at him, suppressed a yawn and took the blanket the man was holding out towards him. "What?"

"I told you, you're suspended for what you did."

The teen blushed in embarrassment. "...Crap."

"Rules are rules." The man shrugged.

"Stiiill!" John complained.

His father sighed, reached out to him, but took his hand down and retreated back to his desk. John forced himself to keep working on the homework anyway, managed to get it done around twelve am, and stared at the man still staring at the laptop on the desk. The cat had moved away, probably to sleep somewhere else.

"I can't do anything about it, it was decided by the principal."

"You told the principal?!"

The man turned towards him. "I have no power over these things. Be glad I was able to talk him out of expulsion."

John furrowed his brows and growled. "Isn't that a little too farfetched...?"

"You never did anything besides oversleeping, so he went easy on you. But don't do anything like this again."

John nodded, sighed and watched the man for a while. He seemed so absorbed in looking through the Essays that the teen didn't want to say anything until the man looked out of the window behind the desk.

"Do you sleep at all?"

"After I'm done with this."

The man always finished looking through essays and homework in a few days. He was the fastest of all the teachers, and John then realized that he probably had nothing else to do at all.

"What do you do when you don't look through homework?"

The question seemed to have caught him off guard as he needed a long time to reply. John began to wonder if the man did anything, if he had something he enjoyed. He hadn't seen movies at all. They were probably in a drawer or something, but even the bookshelf was almost empty and the only books he could see where about learning German and teaching.

"Preparing lessons for the kids..."

"And when you don't do that?"

"Lectures."

"And-"

"Maintenance."

John sighed deeply, almost annoyed. "There's this fair coming up... Core and I wanted to go, but he's busy on that weekend..." He tried. Careful, subtle. There was a lot of catching up to do.

"...I still don't like crowds." The man almost whispered.

The teen scoffed. Of course that hadn't changed. Why had he expected that at all?

"Do you say that because you don't want to or because it's true?"

"What are you getting at?" Jack asked with a frown.

"I haven't spoken to you in four years!"

"You're talking to me after every lecture."

"I want to talk to my father, not my teacher!" John growled. "And what about mom? Are you happy like this? Do you enjoy being alone so much that you didn't even bother to leave a message?!"

The man glared at him, anger visible in his face. "It was the only way to keep you two out of this!"

"If you had told us-"

"I couldn't!" His father hissed. He had turned towards John, fists clenched. "I was under complete surveillance. If I had told you they would have known right away!"

"You could have done it after that!"

"Think about it, John." The man muttered, suddenly sounded defeated. "If I had contacted you, how would you have reacted?"

John went silent then, realized that the argument had no point. Slowly he stood and walked over to his father, sluggish from how tired he was, but he managed and peeked over the man's shoulder. The screen was filled with colorful pictures and had German words next to them, a line below that. John assumed it was for the elementary kids.

"Lisa'd love those pictures. She really likes that cutesy stuff." He muttered to distract from the argument.

"They catch on faster with pictures."

"Really?"

His father nodded. "I tried only using words, but they kept forgetting them. Their German teacher told me to try pictures. It works really well."

"You misspelled that word." John noticed when he looked at the screen again and pointed to the word next to an animal. It showed a raccoon.

The man grunted and corrected the error. "...Always mess that up."

John rested his arm on the man's shoulder and looked for more errors, but couldn't find any. "It's difficult..." the teen agreed. "Some of the words are really hard to say."

He only got a nod as reply, then realized he had used his father as an armrest and backed away. A long silence followed, neither of them knowing what to say.

"I... should go sleep." John then said nervously and turned back to the couch.

"John..." His father muttered then. "Thank you."

"Eh? For what?" The teen turned around and met the sad eyes of his father. He kept arguing with him, why was he thanking him now?

"...Staying." He whispered. "...and for dinner." He turned his gaze away.

John frowned, nodded. He could only imagine how much the man had wanted to talk to him like this. The way they were supposed to speak to each other. He was too tired to think more about it though and so he just curled up on the couch.

"I hope the couch is okay... we can switch if you want to."

"I've slept in weirder places." The teen mumbled, yawned slightly.

He heard the man shuffle over the floor before he put his laptop into the bag he usually had with him, then he turned the lights off but lingered in the doorway.

"...Sleep well."

"Hmmh." John grunted, already half asleep.

John woke to the doorbell ringing. Annoyed he growled at it, but it didn't stop so he jumped off the couch and ripped the door open without being fully awake. A man was standing there, tall, way taller than John, blond hair and  dark eyes, broad and muscular and John suddenly felt like it had been a bad idea to open the door without asking who was there first.

The man had a smirk on his face, was unshaved and somehow greasy looking.

"Good Morning, I'm  I just moved in a few days ago."

John glared at the man, found it strange that he greeted him in English. It was probably just a coincidence, but John was getting suspicious already. He wished he wouldn't have opened the door. "You don't look like you need help with putting together furniture."

" Judging a book by its cover. Tsk."

"What do you want?" The teen growled. In the dorm a lot of people were asking for his help with the weirdest things. He usually refused, and he would do it now to.

"Complain. You were really noisy last night. Oh and an Egg if you have one to spare."

John took a deep breath, headed to the kitchen and got an egg for the man. He was lucky his father had bought so many random things.

"There." He sighed and handed him the egg. "Sorry for the noise..."

"Just make sure it doesn't happen again. Wouldn't want to call the police for something so dumb."

John lifted an eyebrow and shut the door after the man had walked away. "What a weirdo." The teen then jumped when he saw someone leave the bedroom, only to take a deep breath and scold himself. His father looked tired, hair a wild mess and overall he looked as if he hadn't gotten any sleep at all.

"Who was that?" he slurred half asleep.

"Just some neighbor. Said he moved in a few days ago."

"Hm. That guy..." The man grunted and headed to the kitchen to feed the cat.

He had never been a morning person. John almost laughed. It was such a normal thing that it felt out of place.

"You know him?"

"He keeps finding reasons to complain. Just ignore him."

"He bugs you?"

Jack sighed. "All the time. A few days ago he insisted that he could hear the vibration of my cell-phone through the walls. Then he complained about Mary. Said she makes the stairwell smell."

John lifted an eyebrow and snorted. "That's ridiculous!"

The man nodded. "I need to leave early. Have to get the face camo fixed..."

"I can fix it." John offered. "I mean I broke it... so..."

His father stared at him, eyes wide, ready to run away. "I-It's okay."

John began to make himself something to eat when he replied. "It's not the first time I've poked around a cyborg." The teen rolled his eyes. "And I'd assume the face-camo is an external system, so there's probably not much to break anyway."

"John-"

"It's okay." John reassured him. "I can do this."

"But-"

"Dad..-" John bit his tongue, froze. Now he had said it. Accepted the fact that this man was his father.

They both stared at each other for a moment, Jack then turned away with a strange smile. "I don't have the right tools."

"Liar." John smirked. "You always had tools for some emergency fixing."

The man sighed. "I just don't like this." He finally admitted.

"You don't trust me?"

"No... it's just..."

John sighed and forgot about the food when he walked up to his father. "I _can_ do it." He said firmly.

The man then finally gave in then, but John knew he didn't like the idea at all. He hadn't worked with Face-camo before, but the teen assumed that a connection came loose as it lost its effectiveness after he had punched his father. There was still to find out where the thing was sitting.

His father handed him a box that was roughly the size of a laptop, just slightly taller and heavier. It was filled with a few tiny screwdrivers and other delicate looking tools. On top of it was a string of cords neatly packed into a plastic bag. John recognized it as one of the cords that were used to run diagnostics for the body. Most cyborg bodies these days could do it via Wi-Fi, yet some of the cheaper and older models still used the cords. It was also used when the Wi-Fi connection couldn't be established.

John went to his bag to take out the sealed package with the gloves he kept in one of the zipper pockets and opened the package. The gloves weren't necessary, but Dok always did it like that, and John just felt like it was the right thing to do. It also reduced the risk of getting dust or other strange things into parts where they shouldn't be at all. He watched the man take off the shirt, wasn't surprised that the artificial skin covered the whole body. The technology had improved a lot more in the past years. It was hard to tell  the different for the untrained eye now, but John knew what to look for, and it weren't just seam lines.

"Don't be so tense..." John sighed. "You saw the things I built. They're on display in the entrance hall. You even commented on them!"

The man looked away. "Dok keeps saying I'm the only client he has who hates maintenance..."

"Hey I'm doing it for free."

"It's not the cost." The man muttered.

John smiled when he got what his father was trying to say. "You have trouble trusting people with your parts."

The man nodded slightly.

John sighed. "I'm just fixing the Face-camo. I won't touch anything else."

Jack pointed to his right shoulder. "The system is there. It's connected with wires that project a hologram around my head."

"That's why it malfunctions a lot." John concluded. "There's gotta be a lot of interference. There are other types of face camo, you know? There's the mask type too."

The man turned his gaze away once more. "Dok tried that... but it didn't work out."

John lifted and eyebrow and frowned. "That's the newest thing they have. And it looks super realistic. You can even touch it without interference."

"I... don't like it... it's restrictive."

"No way. Core tried one of them on once, he said they're super comfy. He'd kept it if they had allowed it." John grinned. "You can even eat and drink and they're working on a waterproof kind so you could go swimming and shower with it."

"I don't like things covering my face... it puts me on edge." The man silently explained. John got the feeling that he was embarrassed about it.

Silence followed and John carefully peeled back the skin that covered the exoskeleton over the shoulder, inserted a screwdriver in a  tiny hole and pushed on the lock until it opened. Dok really built most of the bodies in the same way. His father's body was slightly different in terms of design, but the initial parts seemed to be at the same spots as all the other bodies John had worked with. He barely got any cyborg body or part to work on that was already connected to someone, but there was nothing different about it. He wasn't yet experienced enough to build his own cyborg body, but he would learn more about it soon. Doktor had promised it.

"Don't you feel weird, prodding around my parts?"

John shook his head, located the system, and looked at it for a while until he understood how the wires were connected. If the wire was broken anywhere else, John would have to look deeper into it, but he had already decided that he would leave it to Dok if it turned out that way.

"...Say something." His father muttered after a while.

John backed away and looked at the man "Huh?" He frowned, continued to look at the part and found a loosened wire.

The man took a deep breath. "Tell me what you're doing." The words had some urgency to it and John couldn't help but think that his father was quite nervous. He couldn't tell why though.

"I found a faulty connection, but I can't yet tell if it's the cause..." John went silent again, looked at the part once more. There was a red LED blinking at him, probably signalizing the faulty connection. He then realized that his father was trembling slightly, his breathing had picked up a bit too.

The teen backed away once more, noticed that the man had his jaw clenched and hands tightly folded. He had his eyes closed, a deep frown on his face.

"Are you okay?"

When he didn't get a reply John leaned in again to continue working, Flinched when he father suddenly spoke.

"Stop...! Please!" His voice was trembling, barely a whisper.

John backed away, eyes wide in surprise. "Did I hurt you?" He asked, afraid he had done anything to harm the man. That was the last thing he wanted.

"N-No..."

John frowned, placed the screwdriver back into the box and sat on the coffee table. "Then what?"

The man took a few deep breaths, John could tell he was upset, but he had no idea why.

"I'll let Dok do it..."

"But why? I just need to connect that wire!" John argued. "You don't trust me at all." The teen huffed and crossed his arms. "I know what I'm doing!"

"I know." the man hissed silently. "I'm just paranoid."

John sighed deeply and rolled his eyes. "Well, then let Dok do it." The teen was slightly offended, but he had the feeling that there was more to it than just an irrational fear. Upset he stood, not sure where to go or what to do when the man spoke again.

"You need to tell me what you're doing." He finally explained.

John, still upset, sat down on the coffee table again. "So you really don't trust me."

The man shook his head. "...It's hard to speak about it..." He admitted.

"Just say it." John sighed, fed up with the secrecy.

His father stayed silent for a long moment before he finally replied. "When this was done to me..." the man pointed to his jaw,  "Nobody said anything..."

John caught on then. "Oh...  alright... I'm not used to talk during this." He muttered.  "Most of the time I just fine tune the stuff Dok built... and my own stuff isn't ready to be attached to people yet.

"I'm just weird." Jack sighed.

"I think that's normal..."

"That I'm weird?"

John rolled his eyes, paused for a moment to get a different screwdriver and managed to reconnect the wire to the system.

"I can imagine that it must be scary to have people all over you and you have no idea what they're doing."

The man nodded slightly. "Dok likes to talk a lot, there's not really a problem with him..."

 John saw the red LED flicker to a soft blue and the man's face turned into that of Mister Scott. The teen shivered slightly and secured the lock before he put the skin back in place and took the gloves off.

"There. It works."

"Thank you..."

John only nodded, replaced the tools in the box and closed it. He then looked at the clock above the door and sighed. It was half past seven. Way too early in the morning. He wanted to go back to sleep.

"So I'm confined to this tiny apartment until next week?"

"You're suspended from college, not grounded." The man smirked when he put on his shirt again.

The teen yawned loudly then and stretched. "I'll go back to sleep..."

"You do that." The man smiled. "I'll be home around four pm... but you don't have to stay here if you don't want to."

John nodded, decided to go back to his dorm room later to get a change of clothing and his toothbrush. He liked the idea of staying here.

"One more thing, John." His father said when he left the living room. "Do not tell your mother."

"Alright." John suppressed another yawn and slumped down on the couch, already half asleep. What was he supposed to tell his mother anyway?

Soft fur in his face made him blink. The living room was really warm and comfy, but the air was dry and he felt thirsty. Yawning he sat up, noticed the heater was on. He turned it down a bit, then looked at the cat that had curled up on the cushion he had slept on just seconds ago.

"I wonder where you come from. You're way too good looking for a stray."

John walked into the kitchen to get a glass of water, then looked out of the kitchen window. The house on the other side had an ambulance parked in front, blue blinking lights blared at him and he retreated.

"Wonder what happened there." He muttered but didn't bother to look. When he returned to the Living room he saw a handwritten note under his cell-phone.

_'I made some pudding for you. It's in the fridge.'_

John sighed with an amused smile and checked his messages while he walked back into the kitchen. Lisa had asked where he and Core were, told him that she got hit on by some weird guy. John didn't pay much attention to it, it happened all the time.

When the teen opened the fridge he saw a bowl with vanilla pudding and another note attached to the bowl.

_'Leave something for me.'_

John almost laughed and was about to reach for the bowl when his cell-phone rang. Slightly upset he accepted the call and closed the fridge.

"Hello?"

"J, you need to help me!" Core hissed silently.

"What's wrong?!" The teen darted to his shoes, put them on and slipped into the jacket.

"There's someone following me. Like seriously stalking me since I walked into the grocery store!"

"Shake him off?"

"I tried! It's as if he knows where I want to go before I do it! I even tried the tiny alleys..."

John growled and ripped the front door open, slammed it shut before he realized had hadn't taken the public transportation ticket. He shrugged. One time wouldn't hurt.

"Where are you?"

"Close to the subway station at home..."

"Get back in the subway, I'll wait at the one at college."

"And then?"

"Lure them to the buildings. The guards will take care of that guy..."

Core sighed deeply, almost sounded relieved. "Damn why didn't I think of that. Thanks J."

"Give me a call when you're there."

"Sure."

John ran to the next best subway station he could find, slipped into the train. It was a different route so he had to switch lines once. When he finally reached the station in front of the college, there was no sign of core and no call or message of him either.

Panic began to spread through the teen. Had the people caught up to core? Had they found him? He decided to wait ten more minutes. Maybe fifteen. But then he would run to the school and get help.

Fifteen minutes were a long time, John noticed. And it was enough time for someone to kill another. His hands were trembling when he checked his messages once more, and cursed loudly when there still was no reply from his friend.

He darted up the stairs then, dashed towards the huge building and breathlessly stumbled into the entrance hall, stumbled against a wall and needed a moment to catch his breath. He really was out of shape, he realized. But that was the least of his problems. He needed to find a certain teacher. And fast.

The man was holding a lecture on the fourth floor and John felt slightly bad for barging in like that. The door slammed into the wall after he had ripped it open and he was standing there, gripping the frame, trying to take deep breaths.

"...May I ask what this is about, Mister Sears?" Mister Scott asked with a slight frown.

John had no time for anything friendly, he was upset at how calm the man was, at how good he was acting, but that wasn't important now.

"It's important!" John panted. "Core might be in danger...!"

The students that had begun to whisper and mumble went silent. The teacher excused himself and left the room, shut the door.

"What's going on, John?" He whispered.

"...Core called me..." the teen hissed, leaned against the wall to catch his breath. "He said someone followed him..." He swallowed, closed his eyes and let himself sink to the floor. "We wanted to meet up at the station but he didn't show up... and he didn't message me either! That's not like him... he would have said if he was held up... and he sounded really scared too."

The man nodded. John was too worn out to find it strange that this man with that face was his father underneath. At the moment he only focused on Core.

"Give Sunny a call. She might be able to find something out."

"Alright..." John muttered and took his cell phone out again. This time there was a message, it was from Lisa. He ignored it and called Sunny, but the woman didn't pick up. He tried a second and a third time, then shook his head. Fear only growing. Sunny always picked up quickly. She even jumped out of the shower to accept a call. Why not now?!

"She's not picking up!"

The man nodded. "Wait in the entrance hall. I'll be there in a bit. Keep trying."

"O-Okay."

John watched him leave, then slowly made his way down to the hall. He felt nauseous, dizzy. He barely made it to one of the couches in the hall before his legs gave in from all the trembling and running he had done. Now Sunny was possibly in danger too?

John swallowed hard. Of course. Why had be believed that things would be normal?

It was plain obvious that a company as big as Maverick wouldn't let anyone live who could turn up their dark secrets.

"Fuck it all..." John hissed. "Fuck it!"


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the long wait. I've been really sick these past few days. Hope you aren't too mad haha. I'm still not back to full health.
> 
> Thank you for all the nice comments. Everytime I read them I just can't help but be amazed at how many of you like what i'm writing. I feel like i'm repeating myself, but I also feel like i can't thank you guys enough for being so awesome :3
> 
> Thank you!

His cell phone dropped to the floor when he tried to call Sunny again, cursed silently at it. John felt terrible, not just because he couldn't reach either of the two he tried to call.  He was just about to press the green button to call for Sunny again when his father rushed up to him, still with the terrible face camo, yet at the moment John couldn't care less.

"Anything?" He asked silently and sat down on another couch close to the teen.

"No..." John whispered. "...What about Hal?"

The man pulled out a pen from a pocket and scribbled a number on a piece of ripped off cardboard that had been lying on the floor.

"You have his number in your head?" John asked in slight disbelief.

"Try calling him." The man muttered without reacting to the question. "I'll take care of that bill."

John nodded slowly and dialed the number. While he was waiting for Hal to pick up, he glanced at the man. He would have imagined that the man had destroyed any possible tie to his previous life, yet a lot of things had given it away already. He had just been too ignorant to see them. The yellow keychain, the way the man moved, even the way he talked, especially when he was angry.

"He's not picking up either..."

The man cursed silently. "Keep trying. I need to get back to the class. Do _not_ leave this building."

"But what about Core?" John insisted. There was no way he'd leave his friend alone like that!

"I know you're worried, But it won't help him if you get captured too."

John was almost sure the man had wanted to say something else, but he left it at that and didn't question.

"Okay..." He almost wanted to hold the man back when he left, but decided against it. It would only look awkward and throw the man into strange situations. He watched him leave, sighed and re-dialed the number.

After the third time Hal finally picked up.

"Hmm...?" The man on the other side grumbled. "Who is this?"

John realized he had no idea what he was supposed to say. "J-John. This is John." He muttered after a moment.

"John who?" the man yawned. John could hear something clatter in the background. Something scraped against the cell-phone on the other side, then a grunt.

The teen frowned deeply. Hal couldn't have forgotten him that fast, right? The last time he had seen him was four years ago, along with Sunny, but he was in contact with the woman at least.

"Something's wrong with Sunny, she doesn't pick up her phone!"

A grumble, then a sigh. "...Well, Sunny is a woman now..."

John's frown deepened, but some sort of relief ghosted over him. "She's... having someone over?"

"That's what she told me last night." A Yawn. "Why do you want to talk to her?"

The teen didn't want to tell the man anything, yet Hal was also a skilled hacker. He would be able to find out something too.

"...Let's just say I did something I shouldn't have and now one of my friends and a teacher are involved."

"You're overseas, aren't you? Your mother mentioned something like that."

"Not important." John hissed. "I think my friend got kidnapped or something... and I wanted to ask Sunny for help, but..."

John heard a chair being pulled away and the clattering of a keyboard. "Hold on, What do you want me to look into?"

"I don't want to. I think I have no choice." John sighed. "It involves Maverick."

A gasp on the other side. John wished he could just tell the man what was really going on, he had been so sad the whole time, but the teen couldn't bring himself to. This had to stay a secret at all costs, otherwise his father might really be in danger now.

"They were involved in that mission. They killed him." John hissed. Even though he now knew that it was all a hoax, he still was extremely angry that this company had tried to kill his father. There were so many unanswered questions about it.

"I think they found out where my friend lives... and want to silence him for hacking them."

"That's kind of extreme." Hal muttered.

John growled. "I have no idea! I just know that he was followed by someone and he didn't show up where I wanted to meet him."

A sigh on the other end. "I need a name."

"Andrew Winter..." John muttered, then flinched violently when someone rested their hand on his shoulder. He turned, glared at the teacher for surprising him.

His father sat down where he had been sitting before, stared out of the glass wall that covered the north entrance of the college.

"I'll call you when I find anything."  Hal muttered.

"Thanks Hal."

John let the phone sink and glared at the man next to him. "Don't ever scare me like that again!" he hissed silently.

The man smiled. "I'm free to leave. We should head to my apartment..."

"I need to get my toothbrush first... and some decent clothing." John sighed.

"What's wrong with the clothing?"

"I look like a hippie!" John complained when he stood and headed to the exit of the building.

The man followed him, an amused smile on his face. "You're running around in my old shirts almost every day."

"That's different!" John insisted and climbed into the black car of the man.

Once the man started the engine, John went silent, thought about Core. There was still no message of him, and by now John was panicking. He kept checking his phone every few seconds, growled.

"I know you're worried." His father muttered. "But it might just be a stupid coincidence."

"Are you fucking kidding me?!" John yelled. "I bet they already killed him!"

The man shook his head. "They'd think he has valuable information. They'd try to get that out of him before they get rid of him."

John huffed and glared out of the window. He almost didn't want to get out of the car when his father parked it in front of the dorm. The man even knew where his dorm was. Two days ago he would have found it suspicious, but now it seemed normal to him.

"I'll wait here." The man announced and killed the engine when John left the car.

"No. You're coming with me." John ordered.

A deep frown made its way to the man's face and John wasn't sure if it where his words or something else, yet the man slowly left the car, locked it and followed John inside the building. The building itself barely had any security, John had never really paid attention to that until now. The supervisor only got mad if someone was too loud during night time or came home past midnight. There wasn't much that wasn't allowed.

John climbed up the stairs and unlocked his room, pleasantly surprised that the door was still locked and that the room behind it looked exactly the same way as he had left it. His father walked up to the closet when he noticed the glass cabinet next to it, crouched down to stare at the blade.

"...Is that mine?"

"Yeah..." John muttered and opened his closet to get some clothing. He put them in a plastic bag and went to the bathroom to get his toothbrush and a few other things.

"Why do you have it?" his father asked silently.

John went back to the room, put the rest of the items into the bag and  climbed up his bed to reach on top of the closet. He grabbed the sheath for the sword and pulled it down, caused dust to rain down on them. When he gave it to his father, John could see tons of questions in the fake eye color.

"Turn the face-camo off... I want to tell this to my dad."

A small smile appeared on the man's lips and the face of the man switched. John knew how that worked and that the man  could switch things on and off at will, yet every time any cyborg did that, John was amazed. He had seen basic interfaces Lisa had designed, and she always complained about not being able to see them in action or use them herself.

"Well..." John muttered after a while. "Mom and I went to get your stuff." He began, thought that the man deserved to hear the story from the beginning, how everything went. "Someone really angry or something told us to follow them and told us we had five minutes to get everything out of your locker. "

Even though now everything had worked out one way or another, John still had trouble to think about it. His eyes were stinging and he paused for a moment, watched the man sit down on the floor and wait patiently.

"Well... we got everything out, and then they took us to see 'you'." The teen shivered. "I... won't go into details... But they were taking the body apart and gave us a fucking box with a head inside. They said you died from a shot to the head, but I couldn't see one. I thought they had covered it up or something..."

His father took a deep breath, leaned against the window. The sun was shining through it, almost blinding John, but the teen didn't pay attention to it.

"And then Kevin walked past us with the blade and I asked if I could have it... he refused to... and then I just grabbed it." Then teen looked at a scar across his left palm, smiled sadly. "Was a stupid idea to grab an unsheathed HF-Blade... he tried to yank it out of my grip and then mom just punched him!" He laughed. "He let go of the blade and I took it, and ... well." The smile disappeared from his face, and he was filled with a strange sadness. "Mom got my hand treated and we just left then... they paid for the funeral, but... it was the most inhuman thing I have ever seen..." The teen took a deep breath. "It was as if you were an object to them... some toy that broke..."

John suppressed his tears, reminded himself that it was alright, that his father was there, but nothing would make these memories go away. It was no use. He was trying to stop the flood of tears with his sleeves, turned his head away from the man.

He flinched when his father sat down next to him and strong arms wrapped around him. Then teen then just couldn't suppress anything anymore. He tried, yet the sobs escaped and before he knew it he was gripping the shirt of the man and cried into his shoulder.

"It's okay..." the man tried to reassure, gently rested a hand on the teen's back like he had done when John had been younger. The simple gesture caused more and more tears to flow.

"...I'm here..."

The man was terrible at this, that hadn't changed at all. John just nodded, appreciated the gesture and didn't want to let go of the man. He had wanted to hug him the whole time, but there had been an invisible gap between them neither of them could cross. John wasn't sure what it was, yet neither of them was able to get closer to the other. The few awkward tries were halfhearted attempts. At least on the teen's side. Until now. John was glad he had taken the man to the room.

Laughing at himself John backed away, eyes widened in surprise when he saw the man quickly turn his head away and wipe his face with his sleeve. He was trembling violently and John could see that he had trouble to hold the tears back. There was something strange about it to see the man cry. It hurt the teen. He knew he was powerless against these emotions and he couldn't imagine how much the man had restricted his own emotions. He was always cheerful as a teacher, always smiling. Yet all of it was a facade. A very well played one, but still a facade.

"Is that why you're always working?" John asked silently. He had calmed down by now, felt a headache form. "So you don't have to think about... us?"

The small nod he got made John bit his lip. "I didn't want to do it..." The man whispered through his tears. "But it was the only way..."

The teen nodded, agreed with it now. There probably hadn't been any better solution for it.

"I'm a terrible person..."

"No." John firmly said and sat up straight. He put his hands on his father's shoulders and  glared at him. "You're not terrible. You had to do it. I get that now... I'm sorry for yelling at you so much..." The teen sighed and hung his head.

His mother had been over it using her job and her skills. John had only pretended that he was over it, yet his father had probably suffered the most. There was no one he could talk to, and Doktor was probably not the best company at times.

"Let's go to your apartment, okay? I'll stay for a few days." John wasn't sure why he was repeating it, but he felt like he needed to say it. "At least until the suspension runs out."

The man nodded with a small smile and slowly they headed back to the car.

In the car silence engulfed them. John wasn't sure if there was anything that needed to be said. His father had turned the face-camo back on, took the sword with him. John had decided that the blade should be with its original owner.

The teen wasn't sure what to say, if there was anything to say. He was still worried about Core, hoped Hal was able to find something out. He had no idea where to look and maybe it was the best idea to just call the police.

"How's your mother doing...?" His father asked silently when he stopped at a red traffic light.

"Good." John replied.

"That's all?"

"She's all alone in that house, I guess she gets lonely sometimes."

The man nodded slightly, John then flinched when his cell phone rang. Immediately he accepted the call, breathed a sigh of relief when he heard Core's voice.

"You don't have to wait for me, I shook them off."

"Why didn't you call sooner?!" John angrily yelled into his phone.

"Calm down... I tripped and a stupid car drove over me phone. I went to Lisa's place to call you."

John growled. What was Core thinking?! He had been worried, and now it wasn't even something important. "Don't drop your fricking phone!" The teen hissed.

Core laughed. "It's all good. I'll go back home later. Don't worry about me."

The teen sighed. "Be careful anyway, alright?"

"Sure."

John glared at the phone after Core had ended the call. Core was alright, that was something, yet the teen couldn't get rid of the feeling that there was still something going on. He watched his father drive through the streets.

"Your friend alright?"

"Yeah. Stupid idiot got his phone destroyed, that's why he didn't call." John growled.

The man smiled and pulled into the parking lot at the building he lived in. John slowly got out of the car, got the plastic bag from the backseat and waited at the front door for his father.

The stairwell smelled strange to the teen. He couldn't tell what it was, but his father seemed to know. The man rushed up the stairs so far that John couldn't keep up. He heard keys drop to the floor, sped up then.

When he reached the top floor he saw his father stand in front of his apartment, rooted to the ground. John was about to ask if something was wrong, then he saw that the door to the apartment had been  ripped off its hinges and in a neon pink color letters where scrawled all over the walls and the door itself. When the teen came closer he realized the strange smell came from the paint and he could read the words now too.

_'I know who you are!'_

It was all over the place. John wanted to enter the apartment but the man held him back. "Let me go first." He whispered, silently stepped over the door. Glass crunched under his shoes, but otherwise the apartment was silent.

John followed him through the rooms, almost screamed when a white cloud of fur jumped out from under the couch. The tip of the cat's tail was colored pink and she leapt up at his father to sit on his shoulder. The man took the cat into his arms, squeezed it lightly.

John inspected the damage then. The bookshelf was thrown to the ground, paper was lying around everywhere and everything was colored with that nasty pink paint. The pictures on the shelf were on the floor, frames broken and glass shattered, pictures inside torn apart.

"Dad... you should call the police..."

The man shook his head. "You need to get out of here John. This is dangerous."

The teen growled. "Of course-" He couldn't finish when Mary suddenly clawed at his father and jumped to the floor only to dart out of the apartment.

"What the-" John began, then his arm was grabbed and he was pulled behind his father.

The teen couldn't see much, but he clearly heard footsteps. He was about to look past his father when the man suddenly let go of his arm and lunged forward. John heard glass shatter, someone shouted, something heavy clattered to the ground in the hallway. John couldn't see what was going on, it happened outside the area he could see from where he was standing.

His heart was racing, his legs shaking but he managed to inch closer to the door of the living room, jumped backwards when the door of a cabinet flew into his direction. Whoever was attacking was probably a cyborg too. A normal human couldn't rip out cabinet doors that easily.

He inched back to the door, saw a masked person who shattered a door of one of the glass cabinets on his father's head. The man stumbled backwards, bumped into a counter and was punched in the face. The face-camo vanished and John growled, didn't know what to do.

"Hey!" he yelled eventually, realized it had been a bad idea when the masked person kicked his father in the side and sent him flying into his direction. John felt terrible for stepping aside and let the man hit the ground, but he knew very well that the impact would have crushed him. His father quickly stood again. John could see glass covering his shirt, some of the shards had stabbed through the clothing and were sticking out like spikes.

"Get out of here!" Jack shouted at John before he charged at the attacker again.

John briefly considered to do what the man had said, but he couldn't just leave his father alone like that. Growling he grabbed the cabinet door that had flown past him and hoped it would hold. The masked man was facing his back towards John. The teen didn't think when he lunged at the man and slammed the cabinet door onto his head. He wasn't sure if it had harmed the man at all, but it give his father enough time to finally knock the man out.

Before John could say anything Jack had grabbed his arm and dragged him out of the apartment. John stumbled down the stairs, barely noticed that Mary had been waiting for them and tailed them out of the building.

Outside John realized how badly he was shaking. His heart was hammering against his chest, but his father didn't give him a moment to rest when he ripped the car doors open and ushered him inside.

John found the white cat on his lap, but couldn't really concentrate on it when the feline clawed his pants as his father was driving as if he had gone nuts. The teen didn't blame him, even though he had no idea where the man was going.

Twenty minutes later, John had calmed down a little and the man pulled the car to the side of the road.

"...You have a license, right?" The man hissed.

"...Yeah?"

Jack didn't wait for a reply when he left the car and ordered John to switch places with him. Confused John left the car and walked around it, gasped in shock when he saw the big bloodstain on the man's shirt.

"Dad?"

"Just drive!" Jack hissed when he slumped down on the passenger's seat. Mary curled up on his lap, and John slowly sat down and shut the door.

"W-Where to?"

The man reached out to the GPS and entered Doktor's address. He then crossed his arms and closed his eyes. John took a deep breath, nodded to himself and slow pulled the car back onto the road. It had been a while since he had last driven a car, but at the moment that was the least of his worried. How badly was his father hurt? What systems had been affected?

He was biting his lip, first aid on cyborgs wasn't as easy as it sounded and John kept drumming his hands onto the steering wheel while he followed the GPS's instructions and almost crashed the car when the man next to him suddenly slipped to the side and hit his head at the window.

"Dad?" John asked in confusion.

The man opened his mouth but no sound came out and a wave of panic raced through the teen. What was he supposed to do now? He didn't want the man to be in pain or anything, but it would almost take an hour to get to Doktor's place and John wasn't sure if the man would be alright for that long.  Of course there were systems that ensured the human part of the body would survive. Still, John didn't want the body to fail that badly. It could be a malfunction, yet the stain on the man's shirt was only growing and John was fairly certain the man was losing too much blood.

He slowed the car down to a halt, grabbed the shoulder of his father, cut his fingers at one of the glass shards, but he barely noticed it.

"Dad-"

The man briefly looked at him, an expression on his face John couldn't interpret and closed his eyes.

The teen changed his plans then, brought the car around. Lisa's house was closest to his current location and she had more experience with cybernetics than he had, she had already build at least one cyborg body. Her father used to work in the field, had the tools that were needed to repair a cyborg body.

John stopped the car  in front of the building Lisa lived in. The woman was living in one of the wealthier districts, the building itself was over a hundred years old. John had no eyes for the numbers that proudly displayed the year it was built in. He had been at her place once, they had a huge apartment, Lisa even had her own room to build things in.

He jumped out of the car , dashed across the sidewalk and rang the doorbell. While he waited for someone to answer he kept glancing back at the car. The man was still limp, head rested against the window.

"Wer ist da?" Lisa asked with her friendly voice.

"John... Komm runter. Sofort!"

"Was ist los?"

"Mein-" John growled, the words escaped him. "Cyborg. In need of help."

Lisa didn't reply, but barely ten seconds later she was dashing down the stairs. She wasn't wearing shoes, had her key in her hand and almost crashed the door into John's face when she exited the building. A man was following her. Her father.

He greeted John with a friendly smile. The teen only nodded, headed to the car and opened the passenger side's door. His father almost fell out of the car and John barely managed to push him back inside. Mary jumped out of the car, waited.

"Mein gott." Lisa exclaimed. "How did that happen?"

"Not important! You need to help him!" John yelled.

Lisa lifted her eyebrows at him, helped him get the man out of the car. "No need to yell at me..." Her father took her spot and she shut the car doors, then paused.

"Isn't that Mister Scott's car?" She asked in confusion.

John flinched, but didn't reply. On the second floor Lisa unlocked the door to the apartment. John stumbled over a pair of shoes carelessly left on the ground and fell to the floor. He cursed and quickly got back up, Lisa's father had already dragged his father into the room they used to store cybernetic parts and Lisa did her experiments in.

John wanted to follow, but was held up by Lisa. The woman had her hands stemmed into her sides, stared at him. Mary was circling around her legs, but she didn't pay attention to it. John tried to get past her but she grabbed his shoulders and shook her head.

"What is going on? You usually don't lose your cool like that."

John growled, he was still trembling, but he knew he was overreacting. Still, there was the fear of losing the man again and he wanted to avoid that at all costs.

"Where's Mister Scott? Why is his car here?"

John took a deep breath. "I know you want answers but I really need to call someone first." John hissed. "I tell you after that." He promised, knew Lisa wouldn't let go of it, he couldn't care less at the moment and took his cell-phone out of his pocket. He was glad he had Dok's number on speed dial, there was no way he would have remembered it.

The older man almost immediately picked up. "John-"

"No time. There's a certain cyborg who really, really needs your help right now." John hissed into the phone, leaned against the wall and ran a hand through his hair. It was a mess he noticed, hanging down nothing left of the hairstyle he usually wore.

"I'm on my way. Where are you?"

John told him the address, told the man to hurry and ended the call. He then was facing Lisa's green eyes.

"So?" she asked, arms crossed, one foot tapping the ground impatiently. "Cyborgs don't die that fast, you should know that."

"I know!" John snapped at her. "It's just... I know him..." he sighed. "He's related to me."

Lisa's expression then changed, and she even smiled. "I thought you said you didn't have any siblings..."

"He's not... a sibling."

"So he's a long lost relative you just found again, or what?" She was joking but John was impressed by how accurate it was.

"Something like that... I just... panicked..." frustrated he threw his arms in the air.

The door to the room Lisa's father had disappeared in opened and her father whistled silently. She nodded and walked up to him. John used the chance to slip into the room as well. He wasn't really shocked at what he was seeing. He had expected the wounds, it was nothing too bad and could be repaired quickly, still. The fact that the man was his father made the whole thing more severe. John couldn't distance his thoughts, couldn't push his feelings away.

Lisa and her father chatted a way in German, even made jokes from what John could tell, but he barely paid attention to it.

"There's nothing to worry about." Lisa said after a while. "You really overreacted. The systems just forced a shut down, it was a malfunction cause by the injuries. Made the system think it was too dangerous to keep going, you know? Happens a lot with these types of bodies."

"...Yeah..." John muttered.

"He's using parts of a lot of different brands, it's kind of unusual. They're all in top condition, but it seems rather random."

John nodded. He felt sick and embarrassed. He had probably given away his father's identity just because he had overreacted. He was also wondering about the attacker in his father's apartment. Who was he?

Why had he attacked at all?

 


	8. Chapter 8

John left the room that resembled a lab and went to the balcony in Lisa's room. Something about the apartment always felt too big for him. It was uncomfortable, cold. It lacked personality. It was decorated and not bad looking but it had no soul. He sighed and wished he would have had cigarettes with him. Smoking wasn't something he did often, but sometimes it helped and this was one of these situations where he thought it would be a good idea.

Lisa walked up to him after a few minutes, threw a pink jacket over him. He hadn't even realized how cold it was.

"That man looks a lot like you." Lisa noted.

"So what?" John growled.

The woman sighed, leaned against the rail next to him. She was wearing a beige bathrobe, head covered with a knitted hat. "You said he's related to you, but no sibling. So, who is he? Also, you still haven't told me why that man was sitting in Mister Scott's car."

"Lisa..." John sighed. "I... can't tell you."

"You can." She insisted. "Whatever it is, I'll keep my mouth shut."

John shook his head, gripped the rail tightly. "Then I'll drag you into this too..."

"Oh is this one of the secrets where you'd have to kill me if I find out?" Her face lit up.

"You're watching too many movies..."

She gripped his shoulders and shook him slightly. "Come on! I wanna know!"

John shook his head firmly. "They might just kill him if they find out that he's here..."

"Eh?" Lisa lifted her eyebrows, tilted her head slightly. "Who? And Why?"

The other teen growled into the pink jacket. He was shaking, both with fear and anger. As if sensing how tense he was Lisa whipped out a package of cigarettes and held it out to him. He didn't question her when he took one, let her light it for him.

John took a deep drag, blew the smoke into the evening sky and watched it dissolve slowly. He shook his head to himself, then let his forehead rest on the rail and sighed. It was way too risky to tell Lisa, yet he felt like he needed to tell someone.

John grumbled silently, lifted his head and took another drag. The trees were swaying in the streets below, wind ripping on the few leafs they still had. Winter was about to come but John had no eyes for it. How was he going to tell this to Lisa without sounding like an idiot? He opened his mouth, then closed it again and sighed.

"I can't tell you..." John hissed.

"But you were about to."

"I changed my mind." He growled, flicked the half finished cigarette over the balcony and retreated to the warmth of the apartment. His hands were cold and he rubbed them together to get warmth back into his fingertips after he placed Lisa's jacket on her bed and was about to leave the room. Lisa grabbed his shirt to stop him.

"What about that man though?"

"I _have_ to protect him. It's my fault he's being targeted."

"Is he a spy or something? Or maybe he's some undercover agent who got caught up in something real bad?" She laughed, tried to ease the mood, but the joke fell on deaf ears. "Or maybe he's a ninja or something." A giggle, and John clenched his fists, tensed and turned away.

"Something like that, yeah" He hissed.

Lisa continued to laugh for a second, then stopped. "Wait, what? I was Joking, John."

"And I said you're right." He sighed, felt defeated.

"Is that why you have to 'protect' him?" She asked in slight disbelief. "No offense, but you're making no sense John."

"I know." John growled.

"What is going on, John?"

John growled, fed up with her now. "Stop asking."

Lisa put her hands on his shoulders and pushed him into the beanbag next to her TV. "Okay, what did you get involved in? How dangerous is it?"

He knew she wouldn't give up on it and hung his shoulders, couldn't look her in the eye. Her questioning gaze seemed to bore itself into his soul. "PMC-level dangerous?"

Lisa reeled back, eye wide. "Please tell me it's one of the tiny ones around here..."

John almost felt bad for not being able to tell her what she wanted to hear. "No. Maverick..."

Lisa sat on her rear and leaned against her bed. "You... did something to Maverick...?" She asked in disbelief, eyes wide as she shook her head slightly

John nodded slightly. "And if they find out that man is still alive, they'll try to kill him... although by now I am almost sure they know already..."

"You need to get help, John." Lisa insisted. "You can't take on that PMC. Not even with a cyborg at your side. Not even with ten or twenty!"

"I know." He sighed. "I just want him to be safe..."

"And you think here is a good place?"

"No. We'll find somewhere else... Thanks for helping though."

"Can't he defend himself?"

"'Course he can." John sighed.

The younger teen wanted to end the discussion, it was getting him nowhere and Lisa really asked way too many questions.

Lisa nodded, then pursed her lips and furrowed her brows. " I still want to know why that car-"

"For fucks sake, Lisa, let it go!"

She held up her hands in defense. "Alright, alright." She sighed.

They headed back to the lab, John even more anxious than before. Doktor should be there any minute now, unless he got held up in the traffic. It wasn't anything unusual around this time. Lisa's father was sitting at a desk, working on something John couldn't see from where he was standing. He didn't have eyes for it either.

"Paps," Lisa muttered when she walked over to her father. John blocked the conversation out and walked over to the cyborg in the middle of the room.

The readings told him that the man was completely fine, just unconscious at the moment. It was nothing to be too concerned about, he knew that. Yet it still made him nervous. A forced shutdown was a terrible strain on the human part of the body and it often took an hour or two until everything was back to normal. However, with anyone else, he wouldn't have been concerned at all.

Anyone else would have been a client, someone who paid for this. John never really had any social interaction with real cyborgs except for his father and the few guards he sometimes spoke to. Sometimes he accidentally walked in on Doktor when he was doing the maintenance on cyborgs, other times he did some paper work for the man or minor repairs. Those conversations where never anything beyond work. This was what the teen had decided to do. Work in cyborgs, possibly for the rest of his life.

They pay was more than decent, but even if it wouldn't be, he would have chosen this path. He wondered if his father was proud of him at all. The man had seen the essay and he had liked it, but he hadn't said anything more about it. Was it because he didn't want John to have an advantage over his peers? The teen could understand that. As a teacher, his father tried to be as fair as possible to everyone. He was always looking for an outcome that would please everyone to a point.

The ring of the doorbell snapped John out of his thoughts. He knew it could only be Doktor, an attacker wouldn't ring the doorbell, yet he tensed. Lisa and her father left the room, both trusting him enough with the delicate equipment all around. If John wanted, he could have been able to name all of it, but he had no eyes for the tools and machinery. His gaze was focused on the man next to him, his unconscious form, the scrunched up face. John didn't have to guess to know that the man had been in pain and possibly still was.

Most cyborg bodies provided systems that could block out whatever needed to be blocked out, yet civilian models, especially the cheaper ones didn't have systems like these. John could only imagine what agony the man had been in. The wounds hadn't been treated fully. They weren't bleeding anymore, that was something at least.

John reached out to the man, when a familiar face popped into the lab. Feeling out of place and somehow guilty, John took a few steps back. Doktor looked at him, then at the cyborg. His soft smile hardened and his lips turned into a faint line. John couldn't tell if the man was upset or surprised or something else.

The teen opened his mouth to explain but Doktor held up a hand and shook his head. John hung his shoulders, not sure if he had possibly done something even worse than just give his father away. He had only wanted to help, save his father. He wanted to slap himself. His foolish actions had made everything worse. It would have been better if he had never figured it out.

"I'll take him to my place." Doktor said firmly. He didn't allow any arguing.

Not that John wanted to argue, perhaps it was best if his father was with Doktor. Something, though, made John fear that he wouldn't see the cyborg again if he let him go like that. Uncertain, like a child that knew he was in lo place to make demands, he opened his mouth once more, grabbed Doktor's wrist as the man reached out to his father.

"I-I'm coming with you."

The older man stared at him, his eyes sad and full of disappointment. The last time Doktor had looked at him like that was when he accidentally dropped a delicate vase that belonged to the cybernetics expert.

"I believe you have done enough, John."

The teen took a step back, his heart began to hammer against his chest and his eyes burned with tears. This wasn't what he had wanted. He wanted to say something, wanted to comment on how strong the old man was when he heaved the unconscious cyborg over his shoulder and dragged him out of the room, but John felt out of place, guilty. Like a criminal. Doktor was upset with him, and this wasn't like it was with the vase.

"Dok-" John tried, his voice cracked and it was barely above a whisper.

He chased the man through the apartment, almost ran into Lisa who already had more questions, but he ignored her. Her father helped Doktor to carry the cyborg downstairs and John felt incredibly frustrated.

"Wait!" John yelled, stumbled over his shoes as he struggled to get them back on. Once he reached the stairwell he heard the front door downstairs slam shut. Panic shot through him and he raced down the stairs, almost stumbled, caught his balance, then ran into Lisa's father. John didn't even apologize when he dashed out of the building. He saw Dok slam the passenger's side door of his dark blue car shut, caught up to him when the man was about to walk around it.

"W-wait!" John's voice cracked. His legs were shaking. The irrational fear of losing his father again felt so real to him that he could barely breathe. "D-Don't..." The teen hissed, grabbed his own arms to hide their trembling, but it was no use. The tears were still stinging in his eyes. The cold wind bit into his face.

"Don't take him away...!" It was as childish plea, John realized that almost immediately. Just how old was he to beg for something like that? His father was an adult man, he could make these decisions on his own.

"It is too dangerous to let him stay here." Doktor said, voice monotone and devoid of any emotion.

"You can't just take him!"

"John!"  The teen flinched. That was probably the first time he heard Doktor yell at him. "I have told you before, you **need** to think about your actions and the consequences!"

"But-"

The man shook his head, sighed and walked over to the teen. Once in front of him he gently placed his hands on the younger male's shoulders and sighed, then nodded to the black car not too far away from them. "Bring that car over to my place. We'll talk there."

John could barely contain his relief when he slipped into the black car, however, once he put the seatbelt on, the tension that had left his body left him exhausted and somehow depressed. He didn't need to follow Doktor through the streets, but he did so anyway, if only to arrive at the same time as he did.

At some point his father must have woken up, as he exited the car on his own after Doktor had pulled up to the parking lot. John parked the black car next to the blue one, but lingered in the car for a while longer. Doktor must have told his father what he had done. How long had it been since he had last felt so bad for doing something he shouldn't have?

When he thought about it, he realized that the last time had involved his father too.

The teen squeaked in surprise and slight fear when the driver's side door was suddenly opened. John froze, stared at his father who just glanced at him. John turn his gaze away and glared at the dashboard. Guilty, afraid. What was he supposed to say? Apologize? For what? The damage was done already.

When John was convinced he would get one hell of a lecture, the man crouched down and actually smiled. "You remind me of someone from a long time ago."

John blinked in surprise, taken aback. "What?"

"Just something I noticed." The man smirked and stood, let John climb out of the car.

The teen shut the car door and gave the key back to his father. "Who?"

"Doesn't matter." The man smiled.

Doktor was waiting for them, his expression still something between anger and disappointment, but John wasn't bothered by it anymore. He now had other things to worry about. That involved explaining to his father that he had left Mary at Lisa's place.

The guilt came back. How could he have forgotten the cat! His father loved that thing, that was way too obvious.

Chewing on his lip he hoped the man wouldn't notice right away. The cat probably felt lonely too...

He realized that was the least of his worries when his cell phone rang with Hal's number.

"I couldn't find out anything about your friend, But I dug up something else. It involves your father."

John had to remind himself that no one knew that the man was still alive, and the teen thought for the time being it was better it stayed that way.

"Oh?"

"I found a file in Maverick's data that lists a man who matches perfectly with your father's data. Apparently they set a spy onto him." Hal told him silently

John stopped in his tracks, stared at the stairs. His father and Doktor had already disappeared in the apartment, one of them had put a shoe in between the door and the frame so it wouldn't slam shut on him. John barely noticed.

"What?"

"I know it might sound absurd to you, but this file has pictures. I checked them with several programs. That man is Raiden no matter how you look at it. He is listed to live around your area at the moment."

"Impossible..." John hissed.

"The file was created in august and last updated five days ago. According to this data, your father seems to be alive and observed by Maverick spies."

John leaned against the handrail of the staircase. That was before he had found it out. They were onto his father before he had even realized.

"There's more." Hal continued. "Apparently he is working as a teacher in two different places. He-"

"What else do they have on him?" John cut him off. The teen was back to panicking now.

"Address, license plate, places he goes to, people he talks to. Possible friends, neighbors. I'd say, everything. There is also a report on a failed assassination attempt just a few hours ago."

John let himself sink onto the step he had been standing on, shook his head. Could it be that instead of giving his father away, he had actually saved his life?

"It seems that they're all set out to kill him with whatever they see fit."

"T-Thanks, Hal."

"Be careful, John. Something about it doesn't feel right. We've been to the funeral, he can't just be back like that... Don't get caught in it. You can't do that to your mother."

John sighed, refused to tell the man anything. "Yeah. I will." He just said, ended the call and sat on the cold stone for a while longer.

When his father poked his head into the stairwell, John was once more fighting with tears. "They know..." He whispered, voice silently and cracking. "H-Hal just told me they have everything of you... they were just waiting for the right moment to strike..."

The almost smile of the man fell and his face lost all color. "The attack-"

"It was them..." John muttered. "They know everything..." John had always thought he knew how hopelessness felt like, but that that moment, he realized that this feeling had more stages and each of them felt more terrible than the last. What was he going to do now? They had no chance against these people, and John had no doubt that they would try to get rid of his father again.

"W-what do we do now...?" John was almost too afraid to ask, yet he wanted to know. Had to know.

"First you come inside and warm up. We'll figure something out."

John scrambled to his feet and slowly followed the man into the apartment. "How can you be so calm about this..."

Jack turned to look at his son, shrugged. "I never expected this cover to hold forever. After what happened in the past few days it was only a matter of time anyway."

"Hal said they were onto you for months..."

That seemed to surprise the man slightly. "We'll figure something out." He smiled, tried to reassure John, but the teen couldn't believe that there was any way out of it.

"...Can I tell mom now...?" The teen asked silently, knew the man would refuse, but he thought it was worth a try.

"No. Besides, what would you tell her...?"

John glared at him and whipped out his cell phone again. His father wasn't going to stop him this time. If their lives were in danger, he at least wanted his mother to know that her husband was still alive!

"John!" Jack protested, made a half hearted attempt to snatch the cell phone out of the teen's hands, but John could see that he didn't really want to.

And so John opened Skype and called his mother.

 


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> omg this took way longer than it should have.... Haha.
> 
> Hope you still like it, this is probably one hell of a confusing chapter. It'll all get explained. No worries :D

John wanted to slam the phone across the room when the call was abruptly cancelled and a message appeared on screen.

'I'm busy at the moment, did something happen?'

Busy could mean one of two things and John suddenly was painfully aware again that his mother was indeed dating someone. The realization hit him like a hammer. He couldn't tell his father that. He swallowed hard when he set the phone on the table and replied to his mother.

'No, wasn't important. Have fun.'

'Will have.'

He looked at his father, the man had a slight frown on his face, head tilted in confusion like a dog would.

"She's busy."

"This early?" Jack asked with a raised eyebrow. He didn't look at the clock above the door and John needed to remind himself that the HUD the man undoubtedly was looking at, had a clock built in. "She's working overtime again, hm?"

To avoid any explanation John nodded. As long as his father wasn't figuring out that his mother was busy with someone rather than something, everything would be okay. At least for a while longer. The teen felt terrible for lying, guilty, bad. Still, he knew he wouldn't be able to take seeing his father cry again. There was just something about it that hurt the teen so much that he couldn't keep his own emotions at bay.

The teen tried to think of anything to talk about that didn't involve his mother, then remembered the cat. "...Your cat... I forgot it at Lisa's place..."

The man flinched slightly. It was a barely notable movement. John caught it because he had expected it. The subtle movements a cyborg body would make in certain situations of surprise or shock. He had never noticed it before, but his father's body was quite responsive to any sort of emotion. He briefly wondered if that was on purpose, when the man sighed.

"She'll live."

John almost scoffed. The cat would be fine. The man would probably miss it, though. The teen wasn't quite sure how long the man had had the cat, but it was plain obvious that he needed it. He was so attached to it, it wasn't much different from the cat-ladies Lisa sometimes talked about, although a little less extreme. In fact, it was only one cat.

"Where'd you get it anyway?"

"Mary?"

John nodded.

His father smiled and shrugged. "She began to sneak through the bedroom window in December last year. Didn't think much of it and let her out again, but she kept coming back." The man explained.

"And then you just kept her?"

The man shook his head. "I had no intention of keeping her."

John lifted his eyebrows. "And why did you in the end?"

"It snowed really badly that one evening and she sneaked into the bedroom, freezing and bleeding... I brought her to a vet, got told she was probably hit by a car.... that was when I decided to keep her."

The teen smiled, remembered all the times he had brought stray animals home only to have them brought to shelters. His mother never wanted animals and his father always reminded him that there simply wasn't enough money to keep a pet.

"So you took in a stray." John muttered with a slight edge to his voice.

His father got what he was hinting at and sighed. "...I don't have to justify that."

"You probably would have taken in anything." John scoffed and saw his father flinch again.

The man chose not to reply and turned his head away as he crossed his arms. "Probably... I needed someone.... something around..."

John knew it took a lot out of him to admit that, even when it was plain obvious. Hearing him say that hurt the teen on a whole new level. Of course he was lonely.

"I'll go pick her up." John sighed and stood. The hand on his shoulder made him flinch slightly. His father was holding his shoulder firmly, almost as if he didn't want him to go.

"...I'll get her."

"They're on to you, remember?"

"If they want to attack me they can do that whenever they want."

John shook his head. "Lisa already asked way more questions than she needed to, it's better if I go... She recognized your car and it was really hard not to tell her anything. I can't pull her into this..."

"I'll drive you."

The teen shrugged, couldn't really go against that. "What about the repairs?"

"It's just superficial damage."

The man laughed nervously when John glared at him. "I don't think I need to tell you how fast that can turn into something serious. You're the veteran here. I shouldn't have to tell you anything about being a cyborg."

"I'm fine."

"You're reckless!"

"John-"

The teen growled angrily. "I won't let you come with me without proper repairs."

"John, it's fine."

"It's not! What if you pass out again? What if something worse happens?! What if I can't re-"

The hand on his shoulder made the teen flinch violently. "You're overreacting."

The teen stared into the blue eyes for his father, unable to even blink for a moment. The man seemed concerned and confused. John knew he was overreacting, but his fear was eating away at him and kept him from keeping the cool head he usually kept when he was working on anything else. His father was just different. With him it was personal.

"What if you die for real this time?"  John mumbled almost inaudibly.

The man headed into the living room where Doktor was sitting in front of a big computer screen and typed into his keyboard. John recognized the program, saw that the man was trying to get rid of a bug in a system John had worked on. It wasn't the issue at hand and so John didn't pay attention to it.

He watched as his father connected a cord to himself and to a laptop and opened up a window on the device. It showed a fairly normal reading, some slight differences, likely due to certain personal adjustments and different amounts of certain supplements, however the readings were completely normal and John sighed deeply.

"See?" His father pointed to the screen and smiled. "It's fine."

John wasn't satisfied, yet he knew he couldn't give any more arguments. "How the hell do you know how to take readings..."

The man looked at him as if he wanted to burst out laughing. "There are things you learn over the years, you know?"

"Don't tell me you're prodding around your parts yourself..." John muttered in slight shock and disbelief. Dok had told him about the few cyborgs he knew that could do basic maintenance on their own.  It shouldn't have surprised him that his father was one of them.

"Only when necessary."

"You're creeping me out." John had meant it as a joke and cursed silently when he realized his father had taken it seriously.

The man hung his shoulders and turned away. "This is something you can't understand..."

"I have no intentions of becoming a cyborg." John muttered. "Not when I have a choice." Another entry on the list of things not to say when around his father. The teen wanted to slap himself. A lot of things he said were like mines. Worded carelessly they'd blow his father up in one way or another.

"Let's get the cat?" John tried to distract his father.

"Her name is Mary." It was a silent almost-growl.

"Fine. Let's get Mary." John briefly wondered if his father had aged at all.

His mother sometimes had mentioned that the man was basically just a big kid. When he was younger John failed to see it, but now it was clear and while he had found it great when he was still a child himself, John now realized that this behavior must have had a reason. The man seemed unaware of it most of the time, and when he was acting out his teacher role it wasn't there at all. That was something John found strange too. It was as if the man kept two different personalities inside his mind.

When they settled in the car, John noticed the smell of artificial blood. His father's expression told him that he had noticed it too. "The smell will go away after a few hours." John helpfully reminded the man and got rolling eyes as a reply.

"I know."

Another childlike reply. Why was it so obvious now? Everything the man did and said was so childlike, John couldn't quite believe the man sitting next to him was in his mid forties. The young looking face didn't help. He had barely changed at all. And even if his hair had gotten gray, there was barely any way to tell as his hair color was pretty light to begin with. John remembered that Core and Lisa kept making fun of his own hair. Everyone thought it was dyed and it was hard to convince them that it was natural. Most of the times only a baby picture would convince them.

"Can I ask you something?" John asked silently after a while. He watched the scenery whizz by, not really paying attention to it.

"Hm?"

"Why did you get turned into a cyborg?"

John almost screamed when the car suddenly shifted violently to the side and the protesting screech of tires behind them could be heard. The man managed to get the car back on track before anything happened, but John was clinging to the seatbelt with wide eyes and held his breath. He reminded himself not to ask questions when his father drove the car.

The man then pulled to the side of the road, hands trembling. "Don't ask that out of nowhere." He hissed. John couldn't tell if he was angry or just surprised.

"You never told me." John shrugged.

"It's not something you share."

"I wanna know." John shrugged. He couldn't quite imagine that it had been as bad as the man tried to make it seem. After all, being a cyborg had probably saved his life, as it did with pretty much every other cyborg. Maybe there had been no time to ask him if he wanted it and that was why the man felt like it had been forced onto him, however, John wanted to hear it out of the man.

"I don't know why." The man then admitted.

"How do you not know? You must have signed a contract or something."

The scoff was so humorless it sent a shiver down John's spine. "When this was done to me, only a handful people knew what a cyborg was. It wasn't one of these sob-stories you'd read about in magazines how it was the only solution left to save person A or B." a second scoff, this time more a growl. "There was no reason to do it. None I was aware of. I never got to sign anything."

"...they forced you?"

"It was more like a 'no choice or say in the matter', thing."

John frowned deeply at those words. "But everything always needs to be signed and talked through..."

"These days, yeah. Remember, this was almost two decades ago. When cyborgs were work of science fiction and no one ever believed them to be real."

The teen suddenly felt cold and vulnerable out in the car.

"I didn't get so sign anything." The man repeated. "I don't know their intentions. I don't know why. They left me to die after they were done."

"What?!" John almost yelled now. "What kind of people do that?! Wasn't that their work?! How could-"

His father laughed at his reaction. "These people were researchers, scientists. They aren't like Dok or you. They didn't do that because they wanted to help. They wanted data."

John chewed on his lip, regretted that he had ever asked, but he was more surprised that his father had actually answered the question.

"No more questions like these, alright?" The man asked when he started the engine again.

"Fine." John sighed, then noticed small snowflakes as the man pulled back into the road. He sighed. As a child he had loved snow, now it was an inconvenience. Traffic turned into utter chaos when it snowed and John knew it wouldn't take long now before they were sitting in a traffic jam. His father seemed to realize that too when he changed lanes and took a turn to the right.

"Why now..." He sighed deeply.

"It's just snow..." John tried to joke. In this city one snowflake meant  hours of being late. He hadn't quite figured it out why, yet, but Doktor had mentioned that it had to do something with people being afraid of slippery roads. His father certainly wasn't. He hadn't slowed down a bit, driving down the barely lit roads of the outskirts of town. Somehow it was funny how both Doktor and his father lived in the outskirts. John knew he had lucked out with a room so close to the college. Rooms and apartments in the city were extremely expensive.

"Snow's nice when you're not outside." His father commented silently, glared at the snowflakes that gradually started to get bigger and bigger.

When John opened his mouth to reply his father suddenly slammed on the breaks, caused the teen to scream in surprise and the car to slither over the road. The teen lost orientation when the car slipped off the road and got hit by another car. He heard the screeching tires, his father cursed, then it was silent and dark, save for the sound of cracking glass and she silent sound the snowflakes made as they hit the ground.

It took John a moment to realize he was upside down. His left hand was blazing with a strange pain, his head felt strangely wet. He heard a grunt next to him, a loud curse.

"John, do you hear me?" the man asked loudly, voice trembling and somehow afraid sounding. The teen nodded before he realized it was probably hard to see the gesture in the darkness of the early evening.

"Y-yeah..."

Another grunt, this time louder and more urgent. "Did you get hurt?"

"Not much." The teen muttered silently. So his father had crashed the car. That was what he concluded after he had managed to open his eyes long enough to see the broken windshield and the airbag.

"Can you get out?"

John looked around. The car was on its roof, snowflakes as big as fists floated silently to the ground. He reached out to the door, almost surprised that it opened. "Yeah..."

"I want you to leave the car and stay back."

"Dad?" John frowned, concern washed over him when he turned his head towards the man. He was in a similar position, only he seemed to be stuck.

"I'm fine." The man reassured him. "Get out."

The teen knew he didn't have much of a choice and removed the seatbelt. Slowly he crawled out of the car, didn't see much in the barely working headlights. He saw a second car jammed into the side of his father's car, no driver to be seen. Had they escaped?

John walked around the cars, couldn't see anyone when he fumbled for his cell-phone only to realize the device was broken. Calling for help was impossible now. Panic seeped through his slightly confused state. He jumped when the second car suddenly moved a bit, then realized it was his father slamming himself against the door of his own car to get out.

He felt dizzy for a second, cold. When he reached to his head he noticed he was bleeding quite a bit. With a silent curse he sat on the cold ground to prevent himself from passing out, watched the snowflakes for a moment. Then he heard the screeching sound of metal against metal and the other car moved once more. His father shouted something, probably a cussword, then John saw him leave the car. It was only a second he saw the man rise to his full height before the man was suddenly on the floor, another curse on his lips.

"Dad?!" John was back to his feet, rushed over to the man who sighed.

"I'm fine."

John could see that. He was mostly fine. His left leg was damaged, that was probably what caused him to fall down. There wasn't much else that seemed to be damaged. At least not on first sight.

"Are you okay?..." John stumbled over the words, blinked a few times when his eyes refused to focus. He took a step backwards, lost balance.

"Sit down, John." His father ordered firmly.

John barely heard him over the noise in his head and when he did sit down, he fell over backwards and was left with a weird state of things suddenly not mattering anymore. There was noise in his head, a voice far away. A face over him. His legs were moved, and slowly the strange state subsided.

"Don't pass out on me." His father sighed. "You hit your head pretty bad."

John was slightly surprised that the man was so calm, but it prevented him from panicking.

"Why... did the car crash?" The teen grimaced at his slurring voice. Why was it so hard to speak?

The man was fumbling with his cell-phone. The light showed John two deep cuts on the side of the man's face. They were bleeding pretty badly too.  Was he in pain? John couldn't tell from his face.

"Someone crashed into my car." The man explained. "I'm calling an ambulance."

"Hmmh..."

John flinched when the man's cold hand suddenly touches his face. "Don't pass out."

"...hard."

"I know. Keep talking."

"...'bout what?" John turned in his side, the movement made everything spin and he began to feel quite sick.

His father was talking to someone on the phone, John tried hard to remember who the man had called, but couldn't. When the man ended the call John was sure the man had called someone John had never met and left it at that. There were quite a few questions racing around in his head.

"Why... are we here?"

"We wanted to pick up Mary, remember?"

John nodded, groaned when the movement made his head spin even more. His father removed his jacket and put it around him. Then he was fumbling around with a white box and John hissed and complained when the man put a bandage around his head.

"Hold still!" The man hissed. "It'll only hurt more when you move."

John grumbled something he didn't even know the meaning of, and tried to hold as still as possible while the man treated the wound on his head.

"Y-you..." The teen swallowed, angry that his voice wasn't listening. "You're hurt too."

"It's fine, don't worry about me. You focus on staying conscious, got that?"

John grunted and nodded slightly. He almost screamed when his father took his left arm and tried to pull it away. Tears of pain burned in this eyes and he knew he had thrown quite a few curses in the direction of the cyborg.

"Sorry." The man muttered. Somehow John was sure that the man wasn't really sorry. He also realized that the man seemed to have a lot of experience in treating injuries. He doubted that was because he was a cyborg.

"...Dad?" the teen slurred after the man had finally left his arm alone. He reached out with the unharmed hand, gripped the shirt of the man. "I... won't let you disappear."

There was a chuckle, some words John couldn't make out and a hand on his face. The hand was cold but it did little to keep him from being pulled away by the darkness that was creeping in and out of his vision.

Loud sounds ripped him out of the dazed state he had been in.

"You back to the land of the living?" a voice asked.

John blinked in confusion and realized he was being dragged over the ground. There were voices in the distance, snow still falling. He was freezing.

"Huh?"

"Can you walk?"

"Yeah..."

John felt an arm around his side, his feet were cold and wet. His head was hurting and he had trouble to hold his balance when his father finally let go of him. John instantly gripped the arm of the  man to steady himself, was held up by the strong arms. It was quite dark around them. John could see the road in the distance.

"Where are we?"

"GPS is jammed, no idea." The man muttered. "We're being chased."

"What?"

"Cyborgs. At least five. I can't fight them like this." The man hissed.

John then noticed that his father wasn't holding him up, but rather used him to hold his own balance. A glance down on the man's legs, showed the teen that the left leg was worse off than he had thought. He couldn't think much more about it when the man urged him to continue walking.

He was limping badly, used trees to keep himself steady whenever he was struggling. John couldn't do much about it. His own head was spinning so badly, he was relying on the other man to drag him along and couldn't do much in terms of support.

"They're going to follow our trail, we need to get out of here."

"We're in a  forest." John reminded the man.

"The road's straight ahead. You can see it."

"My cell-phone is broken..."

"Doesn't matter. I'll get you out of here. This has nothing to do with you."

John slipped, was already preparing for the impact when his father grabbed the jackets around him and pulled him back to his feet. He was surprised and confused, but kept walking alongside the man.

"...Why are they after you, dad... what did you find out?"

"If I tell you, you'll become a target too." The man let go of John and jumped over a tiny river. He used a tree to hold himself steady and reached out to the teen. John grabbed his hand and was pulled over to the other side. He stumbled backwards and stepped into the thin layer of ice over the river. The icy water bit into his right leg and his took in a sharp breath when his father pulled him out of the water and began to drag him to the road.

John stumbled after the man, the light of the road closer now. "Tell me." John urged on when the man dragged him onto the pavement.

"No."

John flinched at the firm voice, squinted into the street lights. As expected, there was now a traffic jam. Just when the teen was about to argue, he saw two cyborgs dash out of the forest. They had guns in their hands. He turned, saw the eyes of his father widen. He cursed loudly, dragged John to the left and navigated through the many cars.

"They won't attack when there are witnesses." Jack tried to reassure, but it did little to calm John down.

The teen was convinced this was the last time he would see snow and his father.

"As long as we stay in the crowds they won't do a thing."

John scoffed but kept following the man. There wasn't anything else he could do. "Police?" John tried as he stumbled onto the other side of the pavement. They were in a shopping district and this close to Christmas there were a lot of people around. John got what the man wanted, and almost sighed in relief, feeling the safety of malls and crowds. He realized how stupid his thoughts were when he remembered that he was currently being dragged around by a cyborg. By an injured cyborg.

The warm air of the mall did little to keep him calm for long. Without the cold, John realized how much his left arm was hurting and how badly his head was spinning. In the bright lights he also saw that the left leg of his father was seriously damaged. It was beyond the teen how the man was able to walk at all. It was probably painful, and even if not, it was a hindrance.

"Where...?" John asked, was getting tired of being yanked around. Wherever his father was headed, it seemed to be the lower floors.

"There's a subway station on the lowest level-"

"I'm not going without you." John immediately protested.

The man sighed, but nodded. "I'm not leaving you."

John looked around, saw two people looking in his direction. They had bald heads and bolts on them. He had no time to mention it, when Jack dragged him around a corner and into an elevator. The cabin was empty and when the doors close and the machine moved downwards John finally let go of the breath he was holding.

His father was leaning against the mirrored wall, wiped blood off his face with his sleeve. John stumbled against the wall, found himself sitting on the floor then and his father hit the red button that stopped the elevator.

"What are you doing?" John slurred, realizing he was getting close to pass out again.

"Buying time. My GPS is working now. I'll try to call a friend."

"Friend?"

"You don't know him."

The teen nodded, exhaustedly leaned against the mirror. His father was trembling, the leg really looked bad with all the wires and cords exposed, sizzling and snapping. His face didn't look much better either. There were two deep cuts on his cheek, one on his forehead. The artificial skin on his Jaw was scraped off at places and exposed the silvery metal below. John wondered if the man was freezing as much as he did. He seemed to be in pain when he spoke to someone.

John didn't understand the words when the noise returned to his ears and cold sweat was covering his forehead. He heard himself chuckle when his father fell to his knees with a confused expression. It had looked funny.

"...He's picking us up..." The man whispered in John's direction, words the teen barely understood while he fought to stay conscious.

In the end the darkness won and he was pulled into its warmth yet again.

 


	10. Chapter 10

Sun through sheer white curtains made him blink. He had no idea how much time had passed, but it was day again, the headache had subsided, he wasn't feeling dizzy anymore either. His left hand was bandaged and a look around made him notice he was lying in a bed. The room had a strange Asian looking style to it. Swords decorated the walls, all in carefully painted sheaths. Was this the apartment of the friend his father had told him about? It didn't surprise the teen that the man had a friend who was a sword fanatic.

When he turned to his side, he saw his father sitting on the ground, arms crossed on the mattress, his head resting atop of them. His hair was a mess, he hadn't even bothered to get the blood out of it. When John reached out to him John noticed he heard sharp intakes of breath as if the man was in pain. The sickening scent of artificial blood hung in the room, too.

"Dad?" John asked silently.

The man slowly lifted his head. The wounds to the human part of his face had been treated, everything else seemed to be as damaged as it had been.

"Where are we?"

"Friend's place." The man hissed, gripped she sheets and pressed his head into the mattress. It was obvious that he was in pain.

John slowly sat up, surprised he wasn't attacked by a dizzy-spell or nausea. The leg of the man was been carelessly put together by tape and the teen grunted in disagreement when he saw that. His father seemed to know what he was looking at and chuckled.

"He tried to fix it." The man laughed silently.

"Your friend isn't a cyborg... right?"

The man slightly shook his head. "He's got a  cybernetic arm."

"And he's a sword fanatic?"

Another chuckle. "Sort of."

"...I thought you had no friends at all. No offense..."

The man lifted his head again, John could see his faced masked with pain. "This isn't the first time Maverick found out where I am."

"It happened before?!"

His father nodded. "I used to stay somewhere completely different... He got rid of them and we had a long talk. Kind of met on a wrong foot the first time we encountered each other."

"...is that why you weren't surprised that they got you again?"

"Took them three years to find me again... Can't say I'm surprised, though. They want me dead after all."

John looked at his father, stared into his eyes. "Tell me why."

"John-"

"Tell me!" John yelled. "You should go to the police!"

"It doesn't work like that." The man sighed.

"You could at least try!"

"...They'd need proof that there is something going on. It's not even in this country and Maverick's good at hiding what they do."

"And what are they doing?" John kept urging on.

The man took a deep breath, shook his head then. "John..."

The teen growled, crossed his arms. "I'm not leaving you alone. And if they're trying to kill you, I'll protect you. But I want to know why!"

The man shook his head with an exhausted sigh. "John, Please listen to me."

The teen glared at his father, ready to yell at him again.

"...I can't take them alone..."

"You haven't even tried!"

"It's not a matter of trying!" Jack yelled back. "I know what I'm capable of! They mass-produce cyborg bodies by now, John. That Body you've seen on me all those years ago, everyone has it now."

"Isn't that really expensive?"

The man almost laughed. It was such a terrible cold and humorless sound that it sent a shiver down John's spine.

"They're using contracts. If one dies they just modify the body for the next. They were doing this already when I was still working for them."

John chewed on his lips, then took a deep breath. "Is that why they tried to kill you?"

The question caught the man off guard, John could see that very clearly. His father shook his head slightly as if trying to chase away some thoughts. With a deep breath he hung his head.

"While World Marshal was getting all these brains, Maverick was working on a different project related to it. Boris did a mistake and gave me clearance for classified files. Though by now I think it might have been on purpose. When I noticed, It was already too late to pretend I hadn't seen anything." The man sighed.

John frowned, surprised that the man had told him about it.

"Maverick wasn't directly involved in the brain thing. They worked on cloning."

"Isn't that forbidden?"

Jack sighed once more. "Instead of using existing people they wanted to create a cyborg army of clones. And hell, it worked. Ever wondered why Maverick got so big in the past few years?"

John felt the color leave his face. "...the people are clones?"

Jack nodded. "They're being held in facilities with the bare minimum they need to live...  held like animals with no rights. When I found that out I confronted Boris."

"And Boris didn't like you snooping around and decided to have you killed?"

The man scoffed. "Something like that... Maybe he didn't think he was doing the wrong thing." He shook his head.

"Do you really think he didn't do that on purpose?"

His father shrugged. "I don't know. I'd like to believe that it wasn't his intention-"

"You're still on his side?!" John now yelled. "He wants you dead!"

Then man turned his head away. "...I've been deceived by people for as long as I can remember... every time I trust someone they end up betraying me in one way or another. As a kid I didn't know any better, but look, it still happens." The man scoffed. "You'd think there's a limit on how often you fall for the same game..."

"What are you talking about?" John asked in confusion.

The man shook his head. "Forget about it. It's not important."

John sighed, still not quite grasping the situation. He decided not to ask more and finally removed the blanket to  get up completely. Someone had dressed him in a quite oversized pajama shirt with pants to match. The teen couldn't help but blush in embarrassment.

"I changed your clothing, don't worry." The man tried to reassure him.

The teen chose to stay quiet, tried to tell himself that it was okay. He had been unconscious and his clothing was probably ruined. It was only logical that someone would change it. It could have been worse. After all, his father had helped him dress a lot of times when he was still a child.

John slowly got to his feet, stumbled a bit, but caught his balance and turned to look at his father. "You're in pain, right?"

"I've had worse."

John shook his head in disbelief. "Tried painkillers?"

"I'm using a different kind. He doesn't have them, since he's mostly human."

John scrunched up his nose. "They're not working?"

"They did work. For an hour or so." The man shrugged. "Don't worry. I'm used to much worse."

"I can try to repair it."

His father sighed deeply. "You should eat something. There's enough in the fridge. Most of it is probably junk food, but it'll do."

John noticed how hungry he was and slowly left the room. He didn't feel great to rummage around in someone else's kitchen, but if this man was a friend of his father, it was probably fine. After all, he had allowed them to stay here. The kitchen was quite big, dark cabinets and tiles, light floor. Over all this apartment seemed expensive and quite out of place.

There was indeed mostly junk food in the fridge and so John decided to go with that, didn't pay much attention to the taste. When he was done eating he returned to his father. The man was now sitting on the bed, head lowered and  one hand pressed on the damaged leg.

"I can try to disconnect it from the system, then it wouldn't hurt anymore." John suggested, startled the man.

His father looked up. John was sure he would refuse and was surprised when the man nodded. He must have been in a lot of pain if he allowed that to happen. "I need some tools and a laptop for that, though."

"There should be some in that drawer."

John turned to look in the direction his father nodded at. There was a dark drawer positioned under a rectangle of a mirror, a few decorative plants on top of it and a stack of playboy magazines. That man lived alone, John assumed. On closer inspection the teen noticed that the plants were fake.

He opened the drawer, soon found a silver box. When he opened it he saw a neat selection of tiny tools, not much different from the one his father had at his apartment. There was a tiny laptop stuffed next to it.

When John returned to his father, he saw the pain so clearly, it was almost as if he felt it himself. The man was good at hiding everything, to see him like this made the teen wonder if the man had endured it for longer than it seemed. Had he been awake the whole night?

The teen settled down next to the man, shivered at the damage. "...are you sure you've had worse than this?" John asked.  "What could be worse?" The teen pointed at the damaged leg.

"Stab wounds. They hurt way more."

The teen shivered. "You've been stabbed before?"

"Several times... not a pleasant thing."

John frowned and inspected the man's leg. "You have to lie down, I can't access the system like that..."

The man lied down on his side, back towards John. The teen was about to set to work when he remembered that his father didn't like that at all. "I... assume this body is the same as the others Dok built... so it should be easy to access it."

He  shoved the shirt of his father away and connected the laptop to a port, was pleasantly surprised to see the right software already on the device. He had been prepared to work on the system from scratch. When he navigated through files with cryptic names he kept thinking about what his father had just told him.

"...Is being a body guard really that dangerous?" John asked when he found the system he was looking for and cursed silently at the encryption. This was a different level of security from the bodies Doktor usually let him work at. He wasn't sure if he was able to shut down the system at all and bit his lip in frustration.

"That was before that." A scoff. "Although I did get stabbed once while with Maverick..."

John stopped typing into the device, frowned. "That's kind of crazy." he was sort of happy that his father was telling him about it. He knew better than to ask why, chances were that his father was in too much pain to even care about what he said.

"I'm no ordinary person." The man muttered.

John shook his head to himself, finally managed to get the access code for the leg and disconnected it. It would now be a useless piece of damage parts, but at least the pain would be gone and John could try to repair it. He wondered how he was supposed to go about it with the injured hand, but didn't think long about it, when his father let out a deep sigh and relaxed.

"I'll try to repair it..."

"Mhm..." his father grumbled, sounded really tired all of sudden. 

The teen almost ran away when a dark haired man suddenly poked his head into the bedroom. "Aha." He said with a bright smile. John could see scars on his bearded face. He was wearing a winter coat, gloves and a scarf, no shoes.

"Ah, the sleeping beauty is awake."

John frowned, needed a moment to understand the strange man meant him. His accent came from somewhere John couldn't quite place. He seemed friendly, but for some reason John didn't want to get too close to him. He was huge and muscular, that was visible even through the thick coat. Was he concerned? He had obviously not bothered to take off his outside clothing, save for the shoes, before he poked his head into the bedroom.

"You awake too, Jack?"

John tilted his head, eyes wide when his father answered. "You could have waited five more minutes."

"You're no fun when you're sleeping."

"Don't have to see your ugly face then."

"Can't everyone have a face like you, pretty boy."

John looked at the stranger, then at his father and back. Were they really friends? They acted as if they hated each other's guts. At least his father was acting like that. The other seemed more affectionate. Was this how middle aged men interacted with each other?

"Uhm..." John muttered, not sure what to say.

"Sam." The man introduced himself with a grin.

"J-John..."

"Yeah, I know. Blondie told me."

"Blondie...?"

Jack sat up with an annoyed growl. "...I'm the ' _Blondie_ '."

"Why does he call you that?"

Sam laughed loudly. "Why, he is a Blondie isn't he?"

John grunted, shook his head. These two didn't seem like friends, more like rivals. How they had ended up close enough to call each other friends was beyond the teen. An old couple might have fit better. The teen nodded to himself. They acted like an old married couple. Which was sort of strange too.

"Done with work, Sam?"

Sam yawned loudly as if to answer. "You're always off work when I meet you. Lazy ass."

"At least I get decent payment."

"At least I don't need to maintain my gear filled ass." Sam shot back.

John flinched, expected his father to get angry and was surprised when the man snorted. "That one's new."

"...are you two always like this?" John asked silently.

Sam laughed heartily at that. "Just between us," The man muttered and leaned in closer. He was still at least two meters away from the teen, so John wasn't sure if the man wanted to keep this between them or not.

"Your _Papa_ likes to pretend to hate me. But he doesn't."

A pillow hit the man in the side.

"Shut the hell up, Sam. This is serious..."

Another hearty laugh. "You think I haven't figured that out yet? Your desperate begging was kind of hilarious, though. So, what did you get your pretty ass caught up in this time?"

John frowned when his father blushed in embarrassment and shook his head to himself.

"Maverick."

"Again?!" Sam ran a hand through his long hair and sighed in exasperation. "Did I ever tell you that you suck at hiding?"

"I don't know how it happened this time. But they got me. And they want me dead."

John chewed on his lips, watched the two men talk to each other. The sort of happy mood had become tense and uncomfortable. He watched as Sam took off his coat, gloves and the scarf and sat them carelessly aside before he finally entered the room.

John could see the cybernetic arm underneath the black t-shirt the man was wearing. There was a red print on it, but the teen couldn't read it. The man seemed to be quite used to the arm. John assumed he had had it for quite a while.

"They've stocked up on their little army." Sam's voice was dripping with anger and disgust.

"I wasn't planning on watching, this time."

"Oh so you decided to fight? Aren't you a little out of shape?"

John set the tools aside and continued to watch them. What was the point in bickering the whole time? "Can I have your phone for a minute?" The teen muttered silently towards his father, was actually surprised when the man wordlessly handed the device over and continued to ramble with Sam.

John blocked their conversation out and logged into his Skype account. There were quite a few messages. Lisa, Sunny, Core and his mother.

He opened Lisa's message first. The older teen seemed angry. _'John what the hell is wrong with you?! I can't reach you at all!'_

He quickly replied that everything was fine, even when it wasn't. He didn't want her to get caught in this, and moved on to Sunny's message.

 _'I need to tell you something, John... give me a call?'_ John frowned at the message, decided to call Sunny once he had checked the other messages.

Core was asking where he was. John had no idea, but he assured Core that he was alright, then finally opened the message of his mother.

_'John! You need to answer!'_

The teen lifted his eyebrows in surprise. His mother had tried to call him at least twenty times. She seemed desperate. Forgetting Sunny for a moment, he tapped the call-symbol and held the phone to his ear.

His mother picked up immediately.

"Thank goodness. John!-"

"Mom? What's wrong?" The teen briefly noted that the two men stopped arguing for a moment. Both were staring at him, but he couldn't be bothered to pay attention to them.

"John! ...I got a letter. A very strange letter. It's addressed at you."

"A letter?"

"I usually don't open your mail, but it's from Maverick. And it's a really strange one..."

The teen swallowed hard, fear and dread battling each other in his chest. What was that about? Why was that happening? Sensing that this was important to the current situation, John took the phone from his ear and turned on the speakers.

"Hold on." John heard paper rustle. "Let me read this to you. 'It has come to our attention that you were involved in a recent attack regarding our security-system. We would like to inform you that we will not let this slide without consequences and expect you to be present at our Head Quarters as soon as possible.'"

John blinked in confusion. His father and Sam both had deep frowns on their faces and muttered in unison, "It's a trap."

"... John I don't like this, what did you do?"

John sighed. "Sunny dug up something... and I wanted to see if it was true. How the hell was I supposed to know that they would react like this?!"

Rose took a deep breath. "There is more. 'Should you not show up within the next ten days, we will use force.'"

" _Fucking bastards_!" Jack snarled angrily. "I'll _kill_ them. _All_ of them!"

John flinched when his mother gasped. There was no doubt she had recognized the voice, even though it had sounded different for a split second. The teen stared at his father, an unfamiliar expression in his face. His eyes seemed to glow, but it was gone so fast, John wasn't sure if it had been imagination.

"...I-Is someone with you?" His mother asked, voice now trembling. "...That man... sounded like..." she took in a shaky breath, then laughed. "I'm imagining thin-"

"Mom..." John interrupted silently and turned on the camera. "The reason I asked Core to hack into Maverick... is because..." He felt tears burn in his eyes again. His father shook his head frantically, tried to get away. He forgot that the damaged leg was disabled and landed on the floor in surprise. John used the chance to change the feed to the back-camera and focused it on his father's face.

"...Stop it, John!" the man yelled, desperation and fear so clear in his voice that it hurt the teen.

"Jack!" His mother whispered. "How..."

The man stared at the phone, motionless, sitting on the floor. For a moment John feared that the man had stopped breathing. He was sitting there, almost as if frozen to the spot. Sam had crossed his arms, tapped the fingers of his cybernetic arm onto his shirt. Maybe he was nervous or annoyed. John couldn't tell when he inched close to his father and gave the phone to him.

The man took the phone with trembling hands, changed the camera to the other side and continued to stare at the phone. The silence was deafening, the mood so tense, John was almost sure it would crush him. There would have been so many other ways to go about it. Was it dangerous that his mother knew now?

What was he supposed to do?

He didn't listen to his parents. It was a very one sided conversation anyway. His mother asked a lot of questions and his father gave short one worded replies. The man was fighting with tears, that was obvious.

The teen made eye-contact with Sam, who shrugged with a silent scoff and a strange smile on his face.

John felt as if all of this was happening in a dream. After all, why would Maverick want to see him? Was it really a trap? Would they want to kill him too? What did they mean with 'force'? Would they track him down and  tie him? Would they do something to people close to him? They knew his father was still alive. Why would they want him too?

The teen was confused, flinched when Sam suddenly sat a cup down in front of him. It was tea, no teabag inside.

"Helps calming down." The whispered with a smile, and sat a second cup next to the cyborg sitting on the ground, still talking to the woman on the phone. He had turned off the speakers, was still mostly listening.

John watched the tea, took in the slightly green sight of the fluid. The cup looked strange. It didn't have a handle, but it was neatly painted and only added to the impression that the man, while seemingly being kind of lazy, was paying a lot attention to details. Not that John was truly interested. He just wanted distraction now.

He hadn't noticed it before, but when he lifted the cup he realized how badly his hands were trembling and how afraid he was. The pain in his left hand was shadowed by all the fear. They would kill him. And they would do it in secret.

He was sure of that now.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> whoo!  
> I watched a livestream marathon of all MGS games.... my sleep pattern is messed up...   
> But now I have seen Metal Gear 1 and 2....   
> and got a lot of hate for liking MGR... being a minority in a pile of snake-fanboys is.... scary.
> 
> That being said, I love you guys. So many comments and nice words! I still don't know what to say about that, Only that I am super, super happy about it.
> 
> Also: OMG. Sam. I've shied away from writing him because I couldn't grasp his character. I'm still having trouble, but I like Sam so much D: ... why is he there and not dead? well Jack isn't the only one who can fake his death, huh? hrhr.


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whooo. Gosh this one took forever.  
> After the oneshots I really was hyped to continue this one again. 
> 
> This chapter gave me trouble. Lots and lots of trouble.   
> Haha, Hope you still like it and that the break of a month didn't bother you too much :3

John leaned against the wall, sipped the tea. It didn't taste great but the warmth calmed him, made the letter his mother had told him about less threatening. His father had put the phone down a few minutes ago and stared blankly into space since then.  The man was trembling, looked sort of pale too.

"You okay, dad?" John asked silently

"I guess." Jack sighed.

"What did mom say?"

John saw him flinch. The man took a deep breath and turned his gaze away before he answered. "She took it better than I thought..."

"That's good... I guess?" The teen muttered, hoped it would be.

Jack nodded slightly.

"Sunny wanted me to call her..." John then muttered and took the phone his father held out to him. He was getting tired of having to call her all the time. It had been way too long since he had last seen her in person.

The girl picked up the call after a moment, grumbled sleepily. "Oh... John. What the hell were you doing the whole time?"

"Was busy with some stuff... What did you want to talk about?"

The woman was silent for a moment, then sighed. "...I lied to you."

John froze, dread already filling him. What now? "About what?"

Another sigh on the other end. "Don't get mad at me, alright?"

The teen frowned, sat up straight. "Okay?"

"...I didn't want to tell you because it would have been dangerous for both of you, but when I saw that file I got scared." Sunny explained.

"What are you talking about?" John frowned, stood to pace in the room.

"Raiden is alive." Sunny muttered.

"I know that now." John growled into the phone. "But how do you know?"

"Long story short, I got contacted by someone. I still don't know who it was, couldn't trace them. They asked me to look into something. Maverick was chasing Raiden at the time, and I contacted a man Wolf told me about... Well..." She laughed a little. "I bribed him, but in the end he agreed on helping Raiden."

"Why are you telling me this now?"

Another sigh from Sunny. She sounded annoyed. "I didn't find the file on accident. It was sent to me. I don't know why or who did that, but they are concerned about your father."

"Can't you find it out?"

"I told you, I can't trace it. I ran it through everything. They're good. Really good. Fact is, this person wants us to help him. Oh and I also found a file about you. It's new, just two days old, but it's already full with things that could get you in serious trouble. This is kind of my fault too..." Sunny grumbled. "I suggest you go to Maverick... but don't you dare go alone."

"Are you insane?!" John now yelled. What was Sunny thinking?!

"Going to them gives you the best chances of survival. They don't want you dead. Yet. For now they only want your father. They lost him for now, but I doubt it will take long before they find him again."

"How reassuring." John growled angrily.

"I'll try to find out who contacts me. You set up a plan."

John nodded at the phone, even after Sunny had ended the call. "What am I supposed to do?" He asked silently, was afraid now. "They'd kill me if I go there right?"

The room was silent for a while, then his father spoke silently. "If they take you by force your chances of things working out okay aren't as big as if you go willingly."

John didn't like that at all.

"I'm not letting you go alone." His father then added. "I don't like this any more than you. We need a plan."

John knew that too. Whatever maverick was planning to do with him, It couldn't be anything good, but he saw that running away would only put him in the same situation as his father. He would be running his whole life then.

He wanted to reply when the cell-phone of his father rang. The man picked up, John could see him go pale. Someone was talking to him, John didn't recognize the voice. He had seen a lot of unanswered messages in the notification bar, but since it hadn't been his phone he hadn't bothered to look at them.

John frowned when his father took the phone down and ripped the battery out of it. "Shit!" He cursed.

 "Dad?" The teen asked in confusion.

"We need to go. Now!" The man was already trying to get to his feet before he remembered that he couldn't and growled angrily.

John sighed, "I'll fix this... then we can go..."  The teen had already pulled up the case with all the tools he could find. It would be makeshift but it had to do. What was going on anyway? John was so confused that he needed to close his eyes for a moment to concentrate. He couldn't make mistakes now. This was important. His hands were trembling anyway and his heart was racing. He was scared.

"Sam, give me your phone!" His father yelled, ripped the device out of the tall man's hands once he had entered the room again and handed the phone to the other man.

"Who is this?" Sunny's voice sounded through the phone not much later. John was almost grateful that the man had put it on speaker-mode.

"Someone you know..." The cyborg replied.

John heard the girl gasp, something clattered down, probably the phone itself. He could hear her whisper _'oh god, oh my god'_ to herself.

"I need you to look into something, we can talk everything through later."

"O-okay." Sunny's voice was shaking. "What..." She cleared her throat, took a deep breath. "What do you need me to do?"

"Trace a phone number."

"Sure."

John kept fumbling with parts and wires, realized that some of them really needed to be replaced. His father was telling Sunny the number, then they proceeded to talk about trivial things. The teen didn't pay much attention to it. He was more surprised that his father was able to remember the phone number, then he realized that it wasn't amazing at all. The man had probably reviewed a video-log.

"... The number is from Maverick's Head Quarters... The line isn't protected at all." Sunny replied after a moment.

John stopped moving for a second. Was there someone else who knew about what they did?

"They're careless." Jack muttered.

"I don't like this." Sam said. "This is bullshit. They want you to think they're careless."

To John it seemed that now something was really going wrong. The dark haired man didn't seem like the type of person who would be unsure or scared about anything.

"Who called you?" Sam eventually asked.

The cyborg opened his mouth to reply, then shook his head as if it was too much to talk about. "He... asked me to come to the HQ..." He scoffed. "Turn myself in or something... then they'll leave John alone."

"What?" John asked as he continued to work on the damaged parts. The leg would work for now, he just needed to replace a few wires before they broke down again. He turned to the laptop connected to his father's body and activated the system required to move the leg.

Sam shook his head. "That's an obvious trap. They'll just kill you."

"I know. But they're also going after John. Sunny, do you have any suggestions?"

"I'll figure something out." Sunny muttered. "Promise me something, Jack..."

John saw his father frown, then nod at the phone. "What is it?"

Sunny paused for a moment as if to think about her words. "Don't risk your life..."

"I can't promise that."

Sunny growled silently. "Then at least don't get killed!" She shouted, sounded angry. "I wouldn't be able to live knowing that...-" She cut herself off then. "Forget I said that!" He yelled and quickly ended the call.

John moved away, leaned against the wall. He was so afraid it was almost painful. This was something that only happened in movies. People being chased like this, needing plans to escape. It was way too absurd to be believed. And yet he knew very well that all of this was reality. The past few days felt like a dream anyway.

He played with the hem of the oversized shirt, noticed how much his hands were still trembling. He had been able to ignore the pain in his head and his hand until now, but with each passing second he felt more awful. The nausea came back and his vision was swarmed by white dots. He barely felt the hands on his shoulders and the ground below him.

Someone was talking, he didn't understand the words.

It took a few more minutes until his vision cleared and he could hear properly again. He thought that it was best if he just went to a hospital, but he wasn't sure if it was safe at all.

"John," He heard his father speak, but was still too out of it to respond properly. "I'll... go. If this is the only way they'd leave you alone, I'll have to-"

John reached out, grabbed the shirt of his father as tightly as he could with the injured hand. "No!" He slurred, pulled the man closer with a strength he didn't know he had. Tears were blinding him, both of fear and pain. "Don't go!"

"John..."

The teen shook his head, made the world spin again. He didn't care when he sat up and lunged at the man, his movement meant to restrain the man, but didn't really have an effect at all. He found himself in a tight hug before there was a strange pain in his neck and he fell into a strange darkness yet again.

When he woke the room was illuminated by a small lamp. The lamp faintly resembled the silhouette of a naked woman, he noticed. When he looked around he found a note on the nightstand.

_'Stay with Sam. I'll take care of everything.'_

His father's handwriting, no doubt. "Fuck you." John growled at the note, got up and looked through the apartment. He seemed to be alone. That was good. He tried to find his clothing, but found nothing so he raided through Sam's closet. The clothing was even bigger than his father's but it had to do. He found two euro, enough to get a train ticket for some distance. He would give it back to Sam later.

It was cold outside, snow at ankle height now. John wasn't sure where he was going, but he knew he wouldn't stay here. A subway station was found quickly, and he realized he wasn't that far out of town. He could have headed to the dorm room if he had the keys to it. Lisa's place was closest to his current location so he just went there. It was just past eight in the evening, Lisa would still be awake. So what if someone followed him? He needed to do something.

He realized he had blacked out for a moment when he almost missed the stop he needed to get off at. That certainly was a concussion, he concluded now. At least the memory loss wasn't that bad.

Lisa almost immediately opened the door to the building, then came rushing down the stairs. "John! Was zum teufel ist los bei dir!"

He stared at her blankly, no energy left to talk to her. He was tired, exhausted, confused and sort of angry too. It almost surprised him that no one had said funny things to him, but he could have just not noticed. Lisa put her hands on his shoulders, stared into his eyes.

"You look terrible." She whispered. "What happened...?"

"Too much..." He muttered, followed her upstairs and into the apartment.

"I'm alone for tonight and tomorrow... do you want something to eat?"

"No." He muttered, stumbled into the apartment and took the shoes off. Lisa stared at him, thousand questions in her eyes.

"John... I really want to know what's going on now. This isn't funny anymore."

He hung his shoulders, sat down on the carpet in the hallway  as his legs were threatening to give in. "It's... complicated."

She scoffed, headed into the living room and came back with a woolen blanket. When she draped it over his shoulders she stopped for a second to inspect his face. "This looks bad... have you been to the hospital?"

"Yeah." He lied to avoid questions.

"How did this happen?"

"Car crashed..." He muttered, felt cold and uncomfortable. This was the least of his concerns now. He needed to find his father. And fast.

Lisa helped him back to his feet and into the living room, where she handed him painkillers and tea. "And now you're going to explain everything. Otherwise I'll tell Core you lost the porn he gave you." She threatened.

"Fine, fine." He didn't really care about Core's reaction to that, but he had enough of keeping secrets. Lisa had a right to know and things were going to hell anyway. So he told her. Who Mister Scott was, who the car had belonged to, why everyone was targeting his father. He only left out his mother, didn't want her to be involved in any of this. She wasn't supposed to know.

"...I find it hard to believe any of this... you know?" Lisa then muttered.

"I don't believe it myself." He answered and sipped the tea, finally able to relax as the painkillers kicked in. He felt almost good now. He was able to tell someone what was going in, someone who might've been able to help.

"I need to find my father."

"Do you really thing he's going there?"

"Yeah... Can you call Core? He might be able to help too..."

"You sure about that?"

He nodded slowly, felt sleep creep up at him again. This time he wasn't sure if it was because of the injury or because was exhausted. He was thankful for Lisa to leave him alone with questions, though and soon drifted into sleep. Things suddenly didn't seem to matter anymore. He was so tired that everything else was just meaningless. His father was a grown man, he could look after himself. He probably had help too.

Everything would be fine.

Except that John knew exactly that things weren't going to turn out fine if he didn't do anything quickly. But for now he just allowed himself to rest. Something would work out.

 


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this took so long... I was kind of busy with trying to go about this in an okay-way. Needed to actually draw one of the scenes here, to get a grasp of how it would go. HAHA
> 
> Hope you enjoy it, Thank you for still reading it!

The next morning felt surreal, just like anything else that happened the past days. He had no key with him, no money, no  phone. His laptop was somewhere, he barely remembered what had happened the previous day. This was Lisa's apartment. He was staring at his reflection in the kitchen window, hand reaching out to the injury to his head. His head was barely hurting, his hand could be ignored. There was something else that pained him and it wasn't a physical pain. Was he just imagining it? Was he forgetting something?

His father's cat was pacing between his legs, rubbing her heard against his shins. He barely noticed that, but he was glad that the cat was safe, hoped his father was too.

He needed to find his father, but where was he to start? The man could be anywhere right now. Getting to the HQ would take a while. Asking Sunny would be admitting that he had let the man go. His mother? He slightly shook his head to himself, turned to look at the bowl with fruits standing on the counter beside him. He briefly considered taking an apple, then decided he wasn't hungry enough. He felt tired, annoyed. Still couldn't grasp what exactly was going on.  He had no phone number of his father, wasn't even sure if the man had taken his phone at all.

"John?" a female voice asked behind him.

He jumped slightly, turned around to his classmate. The woman had dark circles under her eyes, cigarette between her lips, hair messed up and tangled. She as standing there only dressed with a baggy shirt that reached to her knees and suppressed a yawn as she leaned against the doorframe.

"Thought you weren't supposed to smoke inside..."

"You told me our philosophy teacher is actually your believed to be dead-father, a cyborg, chased by one of the biggest PMC's out there and you were in a serious car-crash." She shook her head as if it was too absurd to be believed. "My head's full of things and not smoking inside is so low on that list that I can't even see it."

He gave her a weak smile, then hung his shoulders and sighed deeply. "I need to find him."

"Why?" Lisa immediately asked. "He's an adult man and if he's stupid enough to take on a PMC he can damn right do that on his own without risking anyone else's life."

"You don't understand..." John muttered.

Lisa nodded. "Yes, you're right, I don't understand. How can a father be so reckless?"

"Your father left you alone too..." The younger teen argued weakly.

Lisa rolled her eyes, pulled a chair out from under the table and sat down on it. "Look, I don't get why you're so attached to a guy who lied to you like that."

"...Because..." John felt tears burn in his eyes even before he had properly thought about his reply. Why was it so easy to make him cry when it involved his father? "...There... was a lot of shit going on..."

"Aha?" Lisa leaned forward, curious now.

John sighed, grabbed the apple he had been staring at before and played around with it. "I didn't see him at all before I was five... after that he had no job for a long time... and then he worked overseas."

Lisa nodded slowly, understanding. "So you think your dad is the greatest because he worked really hard? That's bullshit. He should have taken his family with him."

"That was no option..."

"Bullshit." Lisa hissed. "I liked our teacher, but if this guy is really a liar like that, then I don't think I like him anymore."

"Lisa." He said firmly, clenched his fists, cringed a little when he remembered that his left hand was still injured.

The woman shook her head, went over to the fridge and opened the freezer portion. "You know, I thought you were a super normal guy who just happened to move here because this is a good school, but you're starting to freak me out." She said as she took out a frozen pizza and placed it on the counter before she shut the freezer again. "Who the hell are you really?" She asked, looked somehow defeated when she turned towards him.

"No one... Really. I'm just someone who happens to have parents who were involved with something really bad...."

"You don't look like a kid that had bad parents."

"I didn't say my parents were bad!" He almost yelled. "They're the best parents I could have ever wished for-"

"..With a dad who faked his death and didn't even bother to tell his family why?"

"I..." John was at a loss for words. He was still angry about that particular detail as well, but it didn't matter to him anymore. "He's in danger. I just know it... and... and-"

"You want me to help this traitor?"

"I... I just..." John growled in frustration, wished Lisa would just get what he was trying to explain.

"Do you really want to help him?" Lisa nagged.

"Of course! He's my dad!"

The girl shook her head. "You know, I wouldn't forgive my mother even if she begged for it. Because she left me alone. Apologies aren't going to change that."

"This is a completely different situation!"

"It's not. He left you without a word. And now he shows up and pretends he can play happy family again?"

"Lisa!" John shouted. "He had no choice!"

"That's what he tells you."

"He'll die if we don't help him! This isn't an argument or someone cheating on someone! They're out to kill him and he just went there on his own!"

"So he has made his decision." Lisa shrugged, put the pizza in the oven and looked up at John.

John turned away from her, tears burning in his eyes again. "I can't accept that!"

Lisa's sigh was loud and exaggerated. "And what keeps them from going after you after they killed your dad? Aren't they luring you into a trap? I bet they're expecting you to follow your dad."

The younger teen paused, thought about it. "...But what..." He whispered, voice cracking. "If there is a peaceful solution...?"

Lisa laughed, emotionless, mockingly. "You're nuts! If what you told me about them is true, they'll do anything to silence anyone who knows about it. And hey, that makes us targets too."

"You wanted me to tell you." John sighed, couldn't look her in the eye. He hoped all of this would be over soon, hopefully with no one getting hurt. At least no one close to him. He didn't give a damn about what happened to anyone at Maverick. They could rot where they were.

She growled. "You have weird parents.."

"I just need your help, okay?"

Ten minutes later they were sitting on the carpet in the living room, surrounded by laptops and notes, printer working furiously. A plate with the pizza was sitting between them on the carpet. John wasn't quite sure what Lisa was doing, but he hoped that she knew at least. John changed into a pair of more fitting Jeans, not quite caring that they actually belonged to Lisa, and put on the dark blue, almost gray hoodie the woman had given him. It was at least two sizes too big, but it was warm.

He then stared at the screen of Lisa's phone, had needed a moment to learn how to navigate on it. After that he called Core.

His friend needed a moment to pick up, grumbled into the phone. "...Who's there?"

"John."

Core grunted, then yawned loudly. "What's up, J? It's like 6 am..."

"Come over to Lisa's place. Bring your laptops."

"...What are you up to?"

"Do it. It's important..." John muttered. Lisa looked at him, rolled her eyes. It was obvious that she didn't like this at all.

Core told him that he would be there in an hour, then John let the phone sink. He needed to talk to Sunny, still was afraid that she would scold him for being an idiot. So he decided to call his mother first.

The woman picked up instantly, was silent, waited for John to say anything.

"Mom...?" The teen asked, unsure, questioning. Why was his mother waiting so long to say anything?

The woman cleared her throat, then took a deep breath. "How are you?"

The teen frowned. "Okay..." The mood was tense and uncomfortable. What was going on? He felt as if he had kept something big from his mother, even though he had just learned about it a few days ago. Was it even a week now?

His mother was talking to someone, but John couldn't make out the words. "You're busy right now?" He asked, hoped it would help the situation a bit.

"It's okay, just helping someone who got lost."

"A-about dad... I didn't know-"

"It's alright." The woman said, she even seemed to smile. "We should talk this over."

She spoke to the other person again. John couldn't hear a reply.

"Can this wait? The talking I mean... I... just wanted to know how you're doing."

"I'm doing good." His mother replied. "I have to go now, I'll call you back, alright?"

"Sure..."

John frowned deeply at the phone, then put it aside and glared at the paper Lisa had spread over the carpet.

"What the hell are you doing?"

Lisa mumbled something to herself, adjusted a few pages, then looked at her classmate. "Dad could trace him. He was here for a while, enough time to get his data."

"You took his data?"

Lisa's sigh seemed annoyed. "Of course, Silly. You need it in order to do repairs. Did you forget? Dad said he's got a traceable GPS signal, but it's protected. It can't just be accessed like that."

"Core can crack that, right?"

Lisa shrugged. "Pretty sure he can. Or you could just ask the one who built the body. If you know the person."

John considered calling Doktor, realized the man was probably worried by now, or he had figured that they would take a detour. Maybe his father had cleared things up already? The teen didn't want to bring him into this. He was old, had other things to worry about.

"I'll try getting access to it until Core shows up." Lisa then stated.

John nodded, felt relieved. It was possible to find out where his father was. Doktor probably used a satellite connection. But what was he going to do once he found out the location? Confront him? Try to keep him from doing whatever he had planned?

He realized his father was most likely at the airport. Where else would he be? When his mind registered that, he jumped to his feet, dashed into the hallway.

"Lisa I need your car!"

"What?!" she yelled from the living room. "John-"

"Please! I know where he is!"

"You can't go alone-"

"Give me the goddamn keys!" he yelled, then found them on the drawer in the hallway. It was that ugly pink keychain with the flash drives attached to them. He didn't care.

"I'll bring it back to you in one piece." He promised when he hastily put his shoes on and dashed out the door, barely got a glimpse of Lisa who was trying to chase him. John surprised himself with the speed he suddenly had. Was it panic? Or was he happy? He couldn't tell. He almost ran into Core who was walking up to the front door. John barely had time to greet him.

"J? Where are you-" Core couldn't finish his sentence as John had already passed him.

"No time, I'll explain later!" John yelled.

Lisa's white car was found quickly. He unlocked it, jumped in, tried to remember how to get to the airport. On the road he realized how stupid he had been. Why was he so certain that his father was still at the airport? At least twelve hours had passed, there was no way he would still find the man, and yet he clung to the hope that he would find him.

The streets were dark, night still creeping over the city. The sun would rise in an hour or so.

When he had reached a parking lot a phone suddenly rang. It was one of these systems built in the car. Frowning he picked up, located the phone connected to the car not much later. How many cell phones did Lisa have?

"John what the hell are you thinking?!" Lisa shouted at him. "This is stealing! You stole my car!"

"I know..." he hissed. "I'll bring it back to you..."

She cursed at him in German, yelled and eventually threatened to pretend he never existed, when John saw movement through the windshield. The people were chasing a man wearing a dark coat. John almost leapt out of the car when he realized who the man in the coat was. Then he cursed silently at how dumb his father was for not lining up a better disguise.

He jumped out the car, keys firmly clutched in his hands as he navigated through the parked cars. It was cold, the snow still high on certain areas. He ignored it. The airport was big and if he didn't catch the man before the others did, he could end up anywhere. John wasn't thinking when he sped up, raced down the pavement, after the men. His father was out of sight for a moment, then John saw him dart to the right and change directions. The people chasing him obviously didn't notice as they continued on in the direction they had been running before.

John wasn't sure how to stop his father, the man dashed past him, too far away to see his face clearly. He just knew it was him, it had to be. Who else would be chased by security guards? The teen knew it was a bad idea to call out to him, knew someone could hear him, so he rushed after the man. It was ridiculous to try to catch up to a cyborg and his father was quite fast, despite the damaged leg.

The other men didn't seem to have noticed anything yet, thankfully. At least John couldn't see them anywhere.

"Dad!" He finally shouted, caused the man to skid to a halt, almost stumble into a concrete flowerpot currently filled with nothing but snow.

John needed a moment to catch up, the cold air was biting into his face, made it hard to breathe. Once he had reached the man he grabbed the coat and held on to it in a desperate attempt to keep the man from running again. He knew it was impossible. His father could free himself in the blink of an eye if he wanted, but he just stood there, waited.

"Come..." John urged him on, nodded over to Lisa's car. "We'll work something out..."

"What are you doing here?" the taller man asked, his eyes constantly darting from one point to the next to spot the pursuers.

"Later." John hissed, gripped the coat of the man tighter and dragged him over to the car. The teen knew this was only possible because the man was actually following along. At the white car, both of them paused for a moment. "You're the biggest idiot I know." John growled, opened the passenger's side door and pointed inside. "Get in there!"

His father seemed too surprised to argue and just climbed into the car. When John sat down on the other side, he saw the men running through the parking lot. His father cursed silently, ducked when the windshield suddenly shattered. John didn't have time for a surprised sound when he was tackled out of the car by his father.

"They're shooting at us." The older man whispered as he grabbed John's shirt and dragged him behind another car.

John was frozen with fear. He had never expected them to actually shoot. Why were they attacking anyway if they had made a deal with his father? Or had this been part of the plan? The teen couldn't tell. Nausea was creeping up on him, he was trembling and it wasn't because of the cold.

"Calm down, I'll protect you." His father promised. Somehow John didn't believe it. Bullets could kill anyone. Even cyborgs. "John," Two hands landed on the teen's shoulders, shaking him lightly. "Snap out of it. I know what I'm doing."

John could barely nod, legs trembling so badly he could barely stand. How was this going to end? What if they got hurt, or worse? He whimpered in fear when the window of a nearby car shattered.

"They don't care anymore who gets hurt or what gets destroyed. We need to get out of here."

John couldn't speak, had to focus completely on getting his legs to move. This was a damn airport, how did they dare to bring guns?! Where did they get them anyway? They were forbidden here. He hissed when his father dragged him along. Bullets whizzed past them one of them hit something, John clearly heard that. The lack of any pain hopefully meant it hadn't hit him, but he wasn't too sure about that.

His father jumped over a fence, down into what appeared to be a parking block. A bullet hit the concrete wall next to them. John clung to the man, his legs almost unable to keep up with the speed. He had no idea where they were, but he knew that they needed to take care of this. When his father sat him to the ground between cars, John reached out to grab the coat again. Fear and disappointment filled him when the man pried the hand off the coat and firmly shook his head. "I'll take care of them. You stay here."

"Dad!" John hissed. "You can't-" But The man had already dashed to the side and back to their attackers.

The teen was freezing, trembling. Slowly he got back to his feet, managed to reach the staircase and slowly climbed up. Even if it was only to watch the fight, he couldn't stand not knowing what was going on. His father had taken down two of them already when John finally reached the top floor. There were almost no cars around, snow slowly floated to the ground and John hid behind a red care that was parked close to him.

Too late he realized someone had sneaked up on him. He spun around to avoid the attacker, a knife collided with his cheek. The teen hissed at the pain and tried to get some distance between himself and the quite bulky attacker. John didn't know the man, but he was clearly working for Maverick, judging by the insignia on his shirt. A second swing left a tiny gash at his forehead, a punch made him stumble backwards. He suppressed a pained scream as he felt blood gushing from his nose, he had no time to clear it away when a shot rang.  The second of distraction was enough to make him drop his guard. He blocked the attack with his arms but was powerless against the attack. The stranger went for the opening, sank the knife into John's body as if it was butter.

John couldn't suppressed the scream this time. He stared at the hole in the hoodie in disbelief, couldn't quite grasp that the blood that now stained it was his own. His throat felt dry, tongue heavy. Breathing was hard, painful. The cold air hurt. Still, despite the blazing pain, he knew the man would kill him if he didn't do something.  He kicked out at the man's legs, realized that had been a stupid idea. Kicking a cyborg was ridiculous. And he didn't have the time to disable systems, even if he had have the necessary tools with him.

His father could take care of the man, John knew that. He barely noted that he had gotten to his feet, his legs felt numb and were tingling strangely. His could barely make out the figure in the dark coat. It had to be him, right?

His father tossed the man that was attacking him to the side, then turned. For a moment the blue eyes of his father looked as if they were burning, a cold icy blue fire that bored into his mind. The man almost looked scary.

The moment was over before John had really been able to find a solution as to why this had happened, when the his father growled with a voice that barely sounded human anymore. He was saying something John couldn't understand. Blue eyes seemed to change colors, where now blazing in a blinding red.

John knew he would remember that strange laugh for the rest of his life, when he felt his legs give in and he desperately clawed the rail of the building's roof. He was grabbed from behind, felt another stab into his back. The scream barely escaped his lips now. He knew the if the attacker walked backwards he would be able to actually make them both fall down into the barely lit streets. Yet, John thought that wasn't the worst outcome.

His father was standing there, not too far away, face twisted and he was furious. John didn't need clear vision to realize that. There was a laugh above the teen, the man who had still grabbed him laughed.

A gunshot rang across the roof. "I won't let this happen a second time." John heard his father hiss. The teen whimpered in surprise as blood sprayed onto his face and he finally lost balance when the grip on him loosened and the man behind him crumpled to the ground.

John hissed an writhed in pain when arms wrapped around him, holding him tightly into place. Then the teen realized how serious the situation was. He had been stabbed. Twice... or more? He couldn't remember.  He would die. Panic spread through him, made it even harder to breathe. He whimpered once move when he was suddenly lifted off the ground. His father was talking to someone, John tried hard to understand the words, but to no avail.

"John, do you hear me?"

This time John heard the words. They were muffled and distorted but the teen was able to nod.

His father cursed angrily, held him tighter. "Help's on the way." The voice was cracking, trembling. "They'll pay for this... I won't let them get away with this."

John almost laughed. This had to be a stupid dream.  His father squeezed him tightly, kissed his hair. "I won't let you die." He whispered, repeated it over and over again. Eventually it blended in with the background noise. John could barely make it out anymore. The pavement had a strange pattern he noticed. He could almost see faces on it. He was lying on the side, could make out sirens after a while, but they didn't seem to get closer.  He reached out for the shirt of his father, noticed the coat was gone and flinched in surprise when his hand was grabbed.

"...Dad..." he whispered breathlessly. "How... is it like...?"

It took a second or two before John got a reply. His father's voice was laced with tears even though he tried so hard to hide it. "How is what like?"

John laughed silently. "...Don't cry."

"How is what like?" His father asked again.

John grumbled, disappointed that his father had ignored him. "...Dying... how is that like?" The words were hard to say, and he knew he was slurring really bad. How his father understood any of his words was beyond him.

The teen squinted when his father was suddenly very close to him, their noses almost touched. "You are _not_ dying, John. I won't let you."

John felt tears burn in his eyes, not just because of the pain. By now that had turned into something unpleasant rather than agony. Everything felt strangely okay by now. The teen slowly looked up at the man. The wind was cold on his face, bit into his cheeks. He could barely keep his eyes open, his father moved, movements seemed slow and blurry. There was a voice too, more voices.

The words of his father were echoing in his head. 'They'll pay for this.'

With images of his father slaughtering anything evil, he eventually drifted into unconsciousness.

 


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am so sorry that this took so long... I needed this PoV change in the beginning, otherwise this would have never worked out.
> 
> Hope you're not too mad and still like reading it!

Jack growled in anger when he saw more and more of Maverick’s lapdogs enter the parking lot. They weren’t exactly hidden from view. John was slipping into unconsciousness. He needed to get him to safety. The familiar clattering of a grenade nearby made him curse loudly.  He gathered John into his arms, lunged to the side, away from the explosive.  The concrete flower pots didn’t provide much cover, but they didn’t burst when the grenade went off at least. 

He kept cursing under his breath, knew he couldn’t protect John like this. He had to fight them. He saw two more cyborgs creep up on him, tried to stay hidden in the shadows, but the light reflected off their armor.

Jack scoffed, held John tightly. He had no idea what he was supposed to do. He was surrounded, they wouldn’t listen to anything he had to say. What choices did he have? The gun he had picked up was empty already. The Blade was somewhere, probably still in the wreckage of his car. He really hadn’t thought this through, another trait John had gotten from him. The boy was too much like him, he noticed not for the first time. 

He felt reminded of a similar situation years ago. It was as if two events merged with each other. Yet this time he neither had a blade nor a working gun. They kept coming closer, Jack was determined to protect John with all he had, even if it meant getting killed.

A bulled whizzed past him, he had managed to duck in the last moment, but soon there were too many bullets to dodge all of them. All he could do was make sure John didn’t get hit while he tried to evade most of them.

The screeching sound of metal made him pause for only a second. The lack of further gunfire had him turn around. A red sword was glistening in the streetlights. Seeing Sam there made him feel relieved. Three years ago the man had done exactly the same, showed up out of nowhere, got rid of the attackers and helped him flee. This time it was different. There was nowhere to go, and John needed help. Fast.

Their eyes met for a second and Sam tossed him a sword. He caught the sheath, stared at the man in disbelief. He couldn’t leave John alone like this!

“Come on blondie, the faster we get rid of them the faster your boy gets to safety.”

Sam was right. And So Jack drew the blade.

“This isn’t like last time.” Sam muttered when Jack had placed John in a corner where he could have an eye on him but would be out of immediate sight.

Sam chuckled. He was enjoying this, Jack noted. “Let’s see who’s faster.”

“This isn’t a game, Sam.” Jack growled. They stood back to back, the attackers closing in on them.

“Make them pay, blondie.” Sam growled and shot forward.

At the same moment Jack jumped at the closest of the Cyborgs, didn’t bother to dwell on how easily the blade sliced through the armor of the man in front of him. They had their technology to take care of this. It didn’t matter. Only John mattered. And ten minutes later when everyone who was still standing was  fleeing, Jack almost thought they had been victorious. That was when he saw something glint in the corner of his eye. Mind screamed at him to run, experience telling him that he was insane to lunge at the object, yet, it was headed into John’s direction. 

He forced himself to jump forward, heard a sickening crack in the damaged leg as he did so. The pain that shot up in the leg made him grit his teeth. He grabbed the grenade, threw it away. The object slipped from his fingers before he had put enough force into it to throw it far enough away and all he could do was throw himself at John to protect him from the explosion.

He knew he had blacked out for a second or two, the ringing in his ears painful and disorienting. People were running towards them. His first reaction was to attack, but a strong arm wrapped around him and pulled him away.

Medics, Jack then realized once he could see properly again.

John was still alive, yet none of them could tell him for how long or if he’d make it, and they barely had enough time to get the teen out of there when more of maverick’s Cyborgs showed up.

“This is getting tiresome.” Sam complained. “You up for more, blondie?”

“Not like I have a choice.” Jack hissed under his breath when he gripped the damaged parts of his legs and shoved them back in place. He bit back a pained yell and ripped the sleeve off his coat. He tied it around the damage in hopes it would at least hold until they had defeated them, yet neither he nor Sam knew how many of these people were around here.

There was no doubt that they had found their location.

He flinched violently when the codec rang in his head. No one should have been able to reach the frequency. Not unless he had told them, and the only person who knew it always called his cell phone.

A distorted voice sounded in his head. He couldn’t tell if it was male or female, but he didn’t like it.

“I am on your side.” Was the first thing the person said. “There is a tunnel below. It leads to some catacombs that should get you out of there if you manage to get in without them noticing.”

“Who are you?” Jack hissed angrily. Sam had already dived into battle again, seemingly didn’t notice that his companion was busy with a call.

“Someone who’s trying to help.”

“How do I know this isn’t a trap?” Jack growled. He could barely concentrate on the voice between trying to make out Sam and ignoring the pain while he sliced through one of the cyborgs who had gotten too close.

“You’d just have to trust me.” The person said. “I’ll lead you two out of there if you make it to the tunnel.”

“If this is a trap I’ll find you.” His voice was lower, he noticed. _Jack_ about to get lose. He didn’t care if that happened now. He was slightly concerned about the damage to his body, but at the moment it was nothing that couldn’t be repaired. John was his top priority. He needed to know if the boy was safe.

“Sam!” Jack yelled when no further reply came from the unknown person. “Retreat.”

The map on the radar flickered dangerously when they ran through the streets. Something had gotten damaged when that grenade hat exploded. A connection that came loose, probably. And they were being tailed. It was only a matter of time until their enemies caught up. Sam dragged him along more than he actually ran himself, it was difficult to keep up with the man’s pace. And even Sam had lost all motivation in making jokes about their situation.

Maybe he too had finally realized that there was no getting away.

One of the attackers had reached them, about to strike. Jack pushed Sam aside and took the strike to his neck. It was his luck that the weapon of choice of his attacker was a knife, it still did significant damage to his neck before Sam cut the man down and kept dragging Jack along.

“Where to now?!” the dark haired man hissed when they reached a flight of stairs that went downwards into some unknown area.

“Th-e-r“ Jack paused for a second, his voice not coming out the way it was supposed to. The knife had damaged the voice box. Instead of replying Jack just grabbed Sam’s arm and pulled him down the stairs and to the left, like the red arrow on the radar showed. He had no idea how the mysterious caller had gotten access to the files, or why, but that the moment he couldn’t care.

Their pursuers separated in both directions, Sam and Jack ready to attack should the ones who had chosen the left side get too close. Eventually they had to be eliminated, and it was better to do it sooner than later in case they were being traced, but soon navigating through the maze of long forgotten hallways and corridors required their full attention. Sam couldn’t see anything, Jack’s AR- vision was flickering on and off and walking was a hassle. On top of that speaking was difficult too.

Sam snarled when he stumbled over debris. “Are you sure this is the right way?”

“Y-s..”Jack tried to reply.

“Now I can’t even make fun of you if you can’t yell back.” Sam complained, chuckled silently when he got hit in the head by Jack’s fist.

The mood tensed instantly when they heard water. On the radar it wasn’t visible that there was a flooded path. It was the only path, though. Jack stopped in his tracks, yanked on Sam’s arm to stop him as well.

“It’s just water.” Sam growled.

“Expo-ed- arts-“ Jack wanted to growl, however his voice didn’t allow that. It was hard to even get a few words out.

“What?” Sam asked loudly, his voice echoing through the empty area.

“…Parts.”

Sam grunted. “Let's find another way.”

“…There is no other way.” Jack was pleasantly surprised when the sentence came out the way it was intended. His voice barely sounded human anymore, but at least the massage was audible. By now he had calmed down enough to think clearly again, part of his mind still busy with worrying over John, though.

“There has to be one.”

“Only way is to go back… and fight them.”

Sam scoffed. “You’re in no state to fight.”

“The water isn’t deep.” The voice sounded in Jack’s head. “Going back would be suicide.”

Jack relayed the message to Sam who snarled silently. “Who is this?”

“Don’t know.”

 “And there is no other way.”

“None.”

Jack grunted in surprise when Sam flung him over his shoulder and began to walk through the water. The man kept chuckling as Jack told him where to go.

“Stop laughing.”

Sam laughed heartily, his voice echoing off the moldy walls. “Who would have ever thought we’d end up like this someday.”

 

* * *

 

The first thing John noticed was warmth and a dull, barely notable pain.  A man was talking, judging by the voice. It sounded familiar. John wanted to tell him to shut up, but his voice wasn't listening. Throat and mouth dry, tasting strangely metallic. It took him a few more minutes before he was able to understand the words, much longer to comprehend the meaning. He managed to open his eyes, was almost blinded by the light, even though the room was barely lit. His body felt heavy, everything was aching and his legs were tingling strangely.

The person was obviously talking to someone on a phone, was still not taking note of anything other than talking. John couldn't see the man. It definitely was a man.

There was a silence, interrupted by the sound of something clattering to a surface. A cell phone maybe. Then there was silence. John barely remembered anything. He knew he had been hurt, but how it happened escaped him.

The teen tried to move, whimpered at the sharp pain racing through his side and back and gave up on it. Something beside him moved a he saw someone enter his dim field of vision.

"John?" The man asked.

The teen squinted. The first thing he saw were glasses. A head with barely any hair. And white clothing.

“Dok?” John muttered silently, surprised at his weak voice.

“Welcome back to the land of the living.” The man greeted him with a smile.

John wasn’t quite following. “What… happened?”

“A lot.” Was Doktor’s answer.

John frowned, cursed at the pain shooting through his face. “Where’s _he_?”

When the man shrugged, John held his breath for a moment. “What-“

“Your father is not the most important thing at the moment. I need to talk to you about something.”

Fear was chased away by dread. What could be more important than his father?

“How much do you remember of what happened?”

John closed his eyes for a moment, took a deep breath to calm down and to recall what he remembered.

“Not much… I passed out.”

“Your father said they attacked again. He did not go into details. All he did was leave you in my care and insist I’d do anything necessary to save you. Then he left.”

“And you didn’t bother to stop him?”

Doktor sighed, pinched the bridge of his nose. “I am aware that your father can be quite reckless at times, but you were in critical condition, stopping him would have been your certain death.”

John needed a moment to understand the words of the older man. It had been really bad, he concluded. The pain was quite dull, probably because of the drugs they had given him, his legs were tingling strangely. He remembered that this had been the case after he had been stabbed, too.

“John, what I will tell you now will probably surprise you. I want you to try to stay as calm as possible.”

“Dok?” John asked in confusion. Something wasn’t right. Had he been lied to? Did something happen to his father after all? He clutched the sheets with his hands, briefly glanced at the IV connected to him. He had grown up seeing all kinds of scary machinery, his father explained them, and John appreciated their functions. The devices John saw around him were almost all shut off, possibly a precaution, or a room that was used for different purposes. It didn’t quite look like a hospital room either. 

Doktor settled down on the bed, made sure not to sit down on anything important. “Your father wanted me to do anything I could to keep you alive. For a while it looked really bad.”

“But I’m okay. Right?” John asked, slightly concerned now. This was about him after all, it had nothing do to with his father. So what was going on?

Doktor nodded slightly. “Yes, you are okay. However, you are only okay because of modern technology…”

John felt the blood leave his face. Doktor must have seen him go pale as his lips curled into a reassuring smile. “It is nowhere near as intrusive as it could have been. You will be able to continue your life the same way you did before. It will not hinder anything.”

John swallowed hard, still not quite understanding what was going on. “W-what… are you saying?” his voice was barely above a whisper.

“Nun…” Doktor sighed. “Your father did call an ambulance, but before it arrived more people of Maverick showed up and attacked. He mentioned an explosion. I assume it was because of all the cars nearby-“

“Dok!” John hissed, panic filling his voice. His chest felt tight, it was hard to breathe, but he squeezed the words out anyway. “What is going on?!”

The man rested his hands on the teen’s shoulders, both to keep him still and to calm him down. “John, your ribcage had been damaged quite badly; I had to replace parts of it. Minimal damage was done to your internal organs, I guess you need to thank your father for that.”

John took a deep breath, slowly let it out. “But… that’s just bone and all…”

“There was also damage to your spine.”

The teen felt his skin crawl at that. “B-But…”

“There is no need to worry.” Doktor smiled.

John couldn’t quite believe him. Why was he making such a secret out of it too? The man wasn’t the type of person to keep something to himself. He never missed an opportunity to explain the most insignificant detail.

“It will take some getting used to, but you will be able to walk like you did before in no time. It is amazing how far technology has come, isn’t it?”

John glared at him. “…Does this need maintenance? Replacements? Does it wear out? When will I be able to move normally again? How bad was the damage? Does mom know? Where’s dad?” The questions poured out of the teen like a waterfall. He couldn’t stop; panic only growing with every word.

“John, it is all taken care of.”

John tried hard to breathe calmly, but he felt his hands tremble, noticed the stinging in his left hand hadn’t quite disappeared yet. Tears burned in his eyes.

“…You can’t do this without me signing paperwork…” He argued weakly.

“It is you, or someone you allowed to decide if you are unable to. You remember the form they made you fill out when you got into the school?”

John wiped the tears away, didn’t want to cry. “What about it… I didn’t want anything done to me, that’s why I listed Dad…”

The teen flinched slightly when Doktor took his hand. It was cold, not like usual. Doktor always had warm hands, right now they were icy.

“I apologize for doing this against your will. You should rest a bit more.”

John turned his head away and glared at the pillow that now half blocked his vision. After a while the man had left and John fell asleep again. When he woke it was evening, there was food on a tray next to him. A man had his head rested on the bed, was sitting on a chair, IV stand next to him, one arm in a sling, other arm under his head, hand clawing the sheets. Blond hair was stained with blood. John couldn’t see much of the man’s face, but he could see a wound on his forehead that had been stitched.

For a moment John thought the man was sleeping, then he heard him hiss a string of curses in a silent and slightly distorted voice that barely sounded human.

“Dad…?”

The man didn’t lift his head or move at all. “You okay?” asked the distorted voice. It sounded hoarse and sort of mechanical, but still, there was something familiar about it.

“…Yeah…” John muttered. “…What happened to you?”

Silence filled the room for a moment. “…Sam’s holding them off,” Was the silent reply. “…Told me to get some rest…”

John couldn’t quite tell if the man was just in a lot of pain or if his voice really was that bad off.  “They’re… here?”

The man shook his head. “We lured them away from here… someone helped.”

“Someone?” John asked in confusion.

"I have no idea how they got the frequency… The voice is distorted, barely sounds human. Sunny can't trace it.”

"You think they're keeping them away?"

The man nodded slightly, then slowly sat up with a pained grunt, leaned against the backrest of the chair as if moving a heavy bag filled with sand. The man seemed to need a lot of effort to move. "At least that's what I hope..."

John stared at the man. He had dark circles under his eyes, cuts on his face barely treated; the artificial skin on his hands was torn at places, revealed the dark material below. His shirt was frayed, ripped, the coat that was hanging over the back rest of the chair was barely holding together at the seams. The man seemed tired, bruises on the parts of his face that weren’t cut.

He looked exhausted and for the first time since he had found out who his teacher was, John thought that the man looked old. There was an HF-Blade next to the bed, neatly packed into the sheath but it wasn’t his. John wasn’t quite sure if the man had the strength to even get back to his feet.

“…You… look terrible.” Was everything the teen could say.

“It’s not over yet.” His father muttered. The voice sounded worse with every word, John was almost certain that it would stop working soon. His father had explained the voice to him back when he was still five, had no idea about anything and just found it cool to have a dad like that. Now the teen worked on voice-boxes and all that by himself and didn’t find it special at all anymore. The technology behind it was quite complex though.

“How about you?” The man muttered. He was leaning back against the chair, eyes directed at the ceiling as he spoke. His shirt was torn, artificial skin cut below.  How long had the man fought out there?

“Dok said it will be fine…”

“…That’s not what I meant…”

John glared at him. “Can we talk about this once everything calmed down?”

“Sure…”

“Is Sam fighting them all alone?”

His father only nodded.

“…But-“ John went silent when his father turned his head and tired eyes stared at him.

“…He took them down before.”

“That’s crazy! He’s mostly human…”

A humorless chuckle escaped the man. “…Remember back then when I lost my eye?”

John frowned. Of course he remembered.

“Sam did that.”

The teen stared at the man in shock. “Why… are you friends with him…”

The laugh was cut off with the voice box finally dying down and left the man glaring at the ceiling.

“…You should get repairs done…” John suggested silently. He was tired, just wanted to sleep.

His father shook his head, slowly sat up straight again and rummaged through a bag next to him for something to write. When he couldn’t find anything he huffed in annoyance and continued to glare at the floor.

It hit John like a punch to the face when he realized, possibly for the first time, that his father was actually mute. Technology made it so easy to forget.

“It was pretty obvious that it would stop working sooner or later…” John muttered, scolded himself for it. Again he had said things he shouldn’t have.

The man snarled silently, his expression something between anger and resignation. John could only interpret it as ‘I know, stop telling me’.

“Did you tell mom what happened?”

A headshake. John got irritated at that. “Why not?”

The man opened his mouth, of course no sound followed and John felt as if he shouldn’t have asked any question. It was so easy to read the man’s emotions, even easier than when the man said anything. Did he practice it? Or was it natural?

“You think she’d get angry?”

Half a nod.

“But it’s my own fault for not listening to you…”

His father sighed deeply, pushed himself to his feet and swayed dangerously for a moment or two before he grabbed the IV stand next to him and headed for the door. The man stumbled backwards and almost fell to the floor when the door was opened and Doktor entered again.

“Raiden…” The man sighed deeply. “Did I not tell you to get some rest?”

“The voice box…” John muttered. “It stopped working.”

Doktor looked at the teen, then back at the cyborg next to him. “Gut, gut… Sit down, I’ll fix it.” With that the man left, John still staring at his father.

“…They’re really trying to kill us, right?” John asked when the man sat down on the chair again.

The nod he got was hesitant, slow.

 “I need to talk to mom…”

The teen frowned when his father mouthed a few words. John was terrible at lip reading and it took  four and a half repeats until he finally understood what the man was trying to tell him.

_‘Leave her out of this.’_

“She should know!” John protested, moved forward a bit and regretted it immediately. He grunted, reeled back into the pillow and stared straight ahead.

When Doktor returned John wasn’t sure anymore if he should say anything or not. His father didn’t look eager to get repairs done. John had a good idea why, but he was also curious. He rarely missed an opportunity to watch Doktor repair something when he was at his place.

“I will take the sling off.” Doktor muttered, silently, casually. “You really need a new shirt. I’ll find one after this.”

John watched them, saw how his father tried to move away from the hands of the older man. He wondered if he did it subconsciously or not. The teen felt terrible for being unable to do anything, also that he could do nothing more than stare.

Doktor tipped the man’s head back a little, used one hand to support it before he moved a screwdriver down into a lock that had been uncovered already due to the damage. “This could have beheaded a normal human.” Doktor muttered and opened the lock.

John was more fascinated by the expression of his father than the actual repairing. He was looking like a cat about to be thrown into water, breath going fast, eyes pressed shut.

Doktor sighed. “I could put you under, you know, but that would be a bit overkill.”

“You’d drug him?” John asked in disbelief.

“Nun,” Doktor muttered, “Sometimes.” He said while he leaned over a bit to take a better look at the damage.  “This looks worse than I thought. I might have to replace it.”

John caught a glimpse of his father almost falling off the chair before Doktor blocked his view as he pulled the younger man back onto the chair. An annoyed sigh followed. “Raiden, really.” Doktor sounded as if he was scolding a child for doing something quite dumb.

“What’s going on?” John wanted to know, still unable to see anything.

Doktor moved away again, John saw that his father had grabbed the man’s hand and tried to hold him at bay.

“Let go, I will see if I have one I could use.”

When Jack released the man, John lifted an eyebrow. He was still sort of confused about the whole thing, and Sam was apparently battling who knew how many of mavericks lackeys, without any help. “Are you always this bitchy about repairs?”

The glare John got made him shut up and cross his arms. He should have expected it. Even with the face camo the man had overreacted like that. That reminded John that he had to call Lisa and Core too. Mainly Lisa. Apologize for her damaged car, for breaking the promise to bring it back in one piece.

He was about to get lost in thoughts when he saw his father move slightly. He was running a hand over the damaged part of his neck, Eyes wide and seemingly frightened.

“Dad?” John asked in slight confusion.

The man looked at him, then to the floor. John was getting freaked out. Something was wrong with his father, but he couldn’t tell what it was. He was probably in pain, but was that all?

When Doktor returned with a small device in his hands the cyborg jumped to his feet and tried to make a run for it. John hadn’t reacted fast enough and could grasp the man’s sleeve, but Doktor blocked his way.

“Raiden…” Doktor sighed. “What is going on with you?”

“I think he’s scared?” John answered silently, not understanding the man’s behavior.

His father shook his head, ripped the IV out and grabbed the sword before he shoved Doktor aside and made his way out of the room. He was father than John would have thought, considering the damage to the man’s leg that _still_ hadn’t been taken care of.

“What’s going on…?” John wanted to know when Doktor placed the device he was holding on the table.

“I do not know that.”

John got the feeling that the man was lying, but he was too tired to question any of it. Thinking how much he hated that he was so incredibly tired again, he fell asleep.

And still, even when he was asleep, he kept worrying about his father.

 


	14. Chapter 14

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wuha. Almost done now. I might add a 16th chapter, depending on if i can squeeze the rest into the last one or not :3
> 
> Hope you enjoy it!
> 
> EDIT: I have no idea why the last sentecne of this chapter got cut off, I added it now. SORRY |D

When John woke up again the pain was almost driving him mad. Was that how bad it had been? He could barely move, even breathing sent a spike of agony through his body. Tears burned in his eyes, both of frustration and pain. The wheezing sounds came from him, no doubt about it. And panic was creeping up at him, making all of it even worse than it was. There was an alarm going off next to him, he barely noted that. It blended into the noise in his head.

It took him long moments to realize someone was in the room now, his vision was blurred. A calming voice spoke and then slowly the pain dulled and he was able to calm down a bit. His body was trembling, sweat everywhere. He swallowed hard, took in deep breaths, just like his mother had told him so long ago.

“I apologize.” Dok sighed next to him. “I was putting together a kidney unit. Thank goodness for alarms, huh?” the man laughed silently.

John glared at him, too exhausted to make a remark. Why had the pain been so bad?

“…can you give me a cell phone…?” John hissed weakly.

Doktor nodded, but he sat down on the bed. “I tried to make it simple yesterday. Raiden filled me in on a few more things. I am surprised he found the time to write an e-mail.”

“What?”

Doktor sighed, avoided his gaze. That made john suspicious. He would have sat up if he had been able to, but after what happened just minutes ago he was pretty sure that moving was a bad idea. The man’s eyes wandered to a machine that was turned on now.

When John followed his gaze he felt color drain of his face. It was nowhere near as bulky as he remembered these things, but the tubes carrying blood in and out of it made him feel sick. He knew exactly what this thing was for.

“You have been stabbed in three places.” Doktor helpfully informed the panicking teen. “Your right kidney was destroyed. I am working on a replacement.”

John’s mouth felt dry. He licked his lips, took in frightened breaths. Why had this have to happen? Why to him? It had always been clear to him that he’d rather die than suffer the same fate his father did. And now…?

“Raiden told me that the damage to your ribcage was not done by an explosion, it would have surprised me if it was.”

The teen could only listen. Finally things began to make a little more sense, and yet… he feared that there was more he still didn’t know.

“Raiden told me that he passed out for a moment, due to the shockwave and landed on you. That is how your ribcage was damaged.”

Realization seeped into the teen. His father was blaming himself. There was no way he wouldn’t do that, even when it wasn’t his fault at all. The instructions to stay on the lower level had been clear, and John still ignored them. It wasn’t his father’s fault at all.

“Your spine,” Doktor then continued. “The actual damage was done to the nerves. I feared you wouldn’t understand all the technical terms in your state yesterday.”

John nodded slightly, took a deep breath. What would the man say now? He was mentally preparing himself for the worst, hoped that the truth wouldn’t come close to that.

“I had to replace the connections. You are aware of how that works. Your essay on that was one of those with the highest grades.”

John felt a smirk creep up on his lips, but it wouldn’t quite turn into a genuine smile. Doktor had saved his life, he thought that he needed to appreciate that more. “…So you replaced the connection with artificial nerves. Is that why my legs feel so weird?”

Doktor nodded. “It could have been worse, to be frank. If the nerves had been severed completely, then a simple bypass of them would not have worked out.”

“You would have had to replace my legs then.” John concluded. With the pain mostly gone he was able to think clearly now. His knowledge on these things slowly came back, lessons he hadn’t thought about for a while, things he barely touched on. The panic was slowly disappearing too. The teen knew it wasn’t that bad and that it could have been a lot worse.

He had been lucky.

“As I said before,” Doktor muttered, shoved his glasses back in place, “You will be able to walk normally again, the tingling should disappear in a few days.”

John nodded; now with the technical questions out of the way something else began to bug him more and more. “Where’s my father?”

Doktor shrugged. “I have no idea to be honest. The last time I saw him was when he stormed out of this room. I got his email this morning. It seems he is still fighting.”

“Is there no way to contact him?”

“There is. However, I am not sure if he will be able to answer if you talked to him.”

John shook his head. “He doesn’t have to; I just want to tell him something.”

Five minutes later John had a laptop sitting on his lap, a headset on his head and a program running he had never seen before. Dok had helped him sit up, reassured him that the pain was nothing to worry about and the internal injuries he did have were already healed enough so they wouldn’t open up again. 

Doktor praised technology once more and had left the room after he had set up everything and John was figuring out the program. It seemed to be a mock up of Skype, but working with numbers. Ancient. It looked incredibly ancient. There was a piece of paper next to him. A few things written on it. Two sets of numbers.

John took a deep breath and established the connection, then waited for any sign that his father had picked up.

A barely audible grunt on the other end made John assume that the man was listening. “Dad?”

A sound, nothing that could be called a word.

“…It’s okay. I’ll do the talking.” John muttered. He didn’t know why he was getting nervous, his palms sweaty and hands trembling slightly. “What happened… that wasn’t your fault, alright? I didn’t listen…”

The teen bit his tongue for a moment, built up courage to say his next few words. “I’m sure you did everything you could to protect me. I could have died there…”

“The timing is really bad.” Another voice said. It sounded neither male nor female and distorted. That wasn’t his father’s voice.

“What?”

“If you’re not providing any tactical advantage, this is pointless.”

“Who are you…?”

“The man you’re talking to is fighting. You’re distracting him.”

John got silent, flinched when the laptop screen flickered and suddenly showed a video feed. What he was seeing looked like a first person shooter. But soon the teen realized that this was a real video feed of a real fight. It took two more seconds to understand that he was currently seeing what his father was seeing.

“Do you understand now, kid?”

“Yes…” John whispered. “C-can I do anything?”

“You do a lot if you shut up already.”

John nodded, didn’t reply anymore. But he couldn’t tear his gaze away from the screen. He played around with the program, lifted an eyebrow when there was suddenly a set of four video feeds. They were grainy and from above. John assumed those were security cameras. Whoever was talking to his father had hacked the laptop John was currently using and provided him with enough information to make him shut up.

In the distance he saw someone with a red sword. The man looked as if he had done nothing but fight with a sword his whole life. While John had always admired his father’s fighting style, that man over there impressed him. His movements were fluent and didn’t leave any opening. Another of the cameras showed his father. The man was surrounded, weakened. John didn’t need to see the diagnostics to know that. It was hard to tell on the grainy picture, but the man was slow and barely avoided gunfire and other things thrown at him.

When a blade missed his head by a hair john held his breath for a moment.

“Left, duck.” The unknown voice said. John then realized why the person wanted him to shut up. They were helping his father with the battle. “Behind you.”

John bit on his lip, eyes darting over the screen. He wanted to help, but he was confined to this bed, and he was in no state to actually help. All he could do was repairs and basic programming. There was no end to the attackers, John noted. There were more and more. Where had Maverick gotten all these people? Where they really clones? It seemed so absurd to the teen.

“Grenade. Dodge to the left; you can take that guy out. Make a run for it.”

John watched in slight horror when his father slipped, the damaged leg giving out. Things happened too fast to really understand what was going on, but on the video feed from his father he saw alarms flashing. The explosion went off too close to John’s liking and the view shifted, almost as if someone had dropped the camera.

The security cameras showed that the man had fallen to the ground.

“Dad!” John almost screamed.

“Get up.” The other voice ordered. “You can rest later.”

The man with the red sword hat gotten closer, cut down the attackers that had surrounded the man on the ground, then John saw the face pop up in the feed in the middle of his screen.

Sam.

“Blondie, no time for naps.”

The dark haired man pulled the cyborg back to his feet. John heard him curse angrily as he sliced through more of the attackers. Even with the weight now attached to him, Sam still seemed to have the upper hand.

John grabbed the cell-phone Doktor had left next to him, opened up Skype and sent a message to Sunny, ignoring all the other messages she had sent him.

_‘You need to hack into Maverick. I don’t know how you do it, but you need to get them to stop attacking! FAST!’_

_‘What do you think Hal and I’ve been trying to do for the past 12 hours?!’_ Sunny replied.

John growled, eyes wandering back to the laptop. His father was standing again, but John was certain it wouldn’t take long for him to pass out completely. Sam didn’t look too great either. For how long had they been fighting?

The teen glanced at his cell-phone, then linked Core’s profile to Sunny. _‘He might be able to help.’_

_‘Thanks.’_

John couldn’t feel happy over the word. In fact, he felt as if all of it had been his fault.

When Sam grabbed his father by the arm and pushed him away to get him out of the line of fire, John felt strange. Something in him changed. The admiration he had always had for his father shifted in a much simpler thought. All his life he had held onto the illusion of the man being a hero, but that simple moment showed John that he was just an ordinary man. He didn’t know much about his father’s past, but the subtle hints his mother had given him had been enough to get a small picture of just how long the man had been fighting. And now it all made sense.

He understood that his father wasn’t fighting because he wanted to. Of course not. Why would he have chosen to be a teacher if he had wanted to fight so badly?

“Get down!” the voice yelled, making John flinch.

His father dropped to the ground, something flew over him, crashed into a wall, judging by the sound. It was out of the range of the security cameras.

His father was slowly getting back to his feet, so painfully slow. Sam was guarding him, John noticed. When the cyborg discarded the sword and picked up the gun from one of the fallen attackers, John could only stare. He wasn’t surprised that the man knew how to operate a gun, if not before, he had realized it back when he had been attacked in the parking lot. No, it was the way his father used the gun. Sam stepped aside, and one by one the attackers fell.

John had no idea what type of weapon it was, a rifle maybe. The only time he ever got in contact with weapons was in video games.

When the attackers retreated John thought it was over. He felt sick when he realized that all of these people on the ground were real people. People who were alive. But he couldn’t feel sorry for them.

John frowned when his father pried the red sword out of Sam’s hands and stormed forward.

“ _Jack_ , no!” The distorted voice yelled.

John didn’t think anything of it at first, was too focused to watch his father storm into the enemies that had reformed to attack yet again. Despite how weak and exhausted he had looked just minutes ago, he was now running as if nothing had happened. And within seconds the crowd of ten or more people had been cut down.

John blinked in surprise and shock. How had the man done that? The movements had been way too fast to follow.

“Stop! Get out of there! You’ll die!” The voice of the stranger screamed. John began to feel as if the person had known his father for a long time. But who was it? Was it Sunny? John wouldn’t be surprised. After all, Sunny liked the man quite a lot. But why had she made a secret out of it?

When the attackers ganged up on his father, John held his breath. Sam was charging at them and the fight that followed was something John had never seen before. Not even in a game. He couldn’t find words for it, everything happened in a flash. And soon enough Sam and his father were limping through the mess of parts and things John didn’t want to think about.

“Behind you!” the unknown caller yelled.

John only saw that the feed  turned black.

“Jack!” the voice screeched and was cut off. John saw errors fill the video feed, shook his head in disbelief when those died down as well and suddenly displayed ‘no connection’.

After the smoke cleared John saw two people lying on the ground amidst all of the others. The only way to notice who these two were, was by Sam’s unique sword and his father’s blond hair.

John wasn’t sure what had happened. Maybe they had just passed out. Slowly, with trembling hands and tears burning in his eyes he looked at the cell-phone. Sunny had replied.

_‘Got through. They should stop attacking until they realize what’s going on. Raiden should get out of there as soon as possible though.’_

The teen nodded, but couldn’t say or do anything when Sam slowly got back to his feet and dragged his father up. The cyborg was limp, didn’t move at all. And soon they were too far away for the cameras to follow them.

John was unable to move for a few more moments, then he swallowed hard, grabbed the glass of water next to him. What had just happened? He flinched violently when Skype was blinking with an incoming call, a flash of pain raced through him but died down soon enough. He took the headset off and accepted the call from his mother.

“M-Mom?” he asked in confusion. She had called at a really bad time.

“How… are you?” she asked, voice trembling and weak.

John frowned. “Mom, are you alright?”

“Yes… just a little shaken up.”

“Did Dok call you?”

“Yeah.”

John grimaced. “Don’t blame dad for that, okay?”

She was silent for a second too long. “I’m sure your father had his reasons.”

“You would have done the same.”

She sighed. “Maybe.”

John wasn’t sure his mother knew what exactly he was talking about. “A-anyway. It doesn’t matter.”

“Get some rest, sweetheart.”

“Sure…” He said, but was already dismissing the idea. When the call ended he sank back into the pillows, shoved the laptop aside and stared at the ceiling.

He was so stressed out he didn’t notice he had fallen asleep until he woke up again. The room still looked the same, but the laptop was neatly packed away, and he wasn’t connected to that dreaded machine anymore.

John furrowed his brows when Doktor walked into the room. Gloved hands carrying some tools. “You’re awake, John?” the man asked silently.

John could only nod. Where were the man’s assistants?

“You look tired.” John noted after a moment.

“Why yes, I have been awake for quite some time now.” Doktor smiled. “I have also called your friends, they wanted to come by for a visit later.

John could only nod on that. “What about Maverick…?”

Doktor sat down on the only chair in the room, it had been moved to the table. “I believe the government has interfered. It was only a matter of time until they noticed.”

“That’s good… right?”

Doktor shrugged. “There will be lots of paperwork to sort through, but I believe that everything will work out alright in due time.”

“And Dad?”

“I have not heard from him yet.”

“…Why did you tell my mother what happened to me?” John then asked, that question so important to him that he couldn’t let it go.

Doktor frowned at that. “What do you mean? I have not told anyone about it. You should do that on your own.”

John was confused now. Who was lying? His mother? He couldn’t think much about it when Core and Lisa peeked into the room. Ten minutes later they were sitting in a small room that slightly reminded John of a living room. It didn’t look as if someone lived here though. The teen thought Lisa was going to cry when he explained that he couldn’t walk properly at the moment. And with that all the other questions came too.

John was tired of answering them. They had borrowed a wheelchair, something John didn’t want to get used to. He wouldn’t have to if everything healed the way it was supposed to. However, Dok insisted that he should not put any unnecessary strain in his body for the time being.

“So…” Lisa muttered after a while, clutched the coffee mug in her hands firmly.

“I’m sorry about your car…” John turned his gaze away from her, still felt guilty about it.

“Forget my freaking car! You almost died!”

“…But I didn’t.”

“And you almost ended up being paralyzed!”

“Lisa…” John sighed. “I won’t be…”

The woman bit her lip as tears welled up in her eyes. “And… your dad… that’s… our teacher isn’t it?”

John nodded slightly.

“…I don’t think he’ll be able to keep working as a teacher after this though…” Core then said. His voice was icy.

“Why not?”

Core cleared his throat. “Because he’s a cyborg.”

“Das ist doch bescheuert!”Lisa exclaimed, slipped into her mother tongue.

Core sighed, looked out of the window. It was raining; no one had bothered to turn the lights on inside the room. “He’s not who he said he was. He deceived the whole school and even more people.”

Lisa scoffed, slammed the mug on the side table and crossed her arms angrily.

“We should worry about how to stop Maverick…” John interrupted.”I don’t think tricking them holds them off for too long…”

“Your friend is still working on a solution.” Core explained. “You never mentioned that your father was a cyborg, by the way.”

John glared at him. “I had no reason to share that. I didn’t even know he was alive until a week ago!”

Core crossed his arms. “Weren’t you required to list if any of your family members had enhancements?”

“You looked through the school files?”

“’Course I did.  After everything that’s happened Lisa and I got really suspicious about you.”

John scoffed. “So, you want to stop being friends now?”

Core stared at him, dark eyes piercing and somehow intimidating. “You know why I hate them.”

“But I’m not at fault for what happened to your cousin.”

“Of course not, don’t be ridiculous.” Core scoffed.

“Then what is your problem now?”

“They’re shitting on humans with their-“ Core stopped mid sentence as Lisa slapped him across the face, then grabbed his collar and pulled him close. “Watch what you’re saying Andrew.”

John stared at them, felt the mood tensing. “Lisa…? Why are you getting mad now…?” He asked in confusion.

Lisa let go of Core, sighed deeply and pulled down the black tights she was wearing. John blushed in embarrassment, but quickly discovered that the reason for her doing this, was to show him right leg. It didn’t take a genius to tell that the leg was cybernetic from her mid-thigh onwards.

“What… the…” John whispered in confusion and surprise.

Lisa rolled her eyes and pulled the tights back up. “Yeah people forget and don’t really see it because my skirts and dresses are always longer than this.” Lisa shrugged. “But if you look really close you can see that there’s no hair growing. That’s really convenient actually. I don’t need to shave that leg. Saves tons of time.”

John wanted to laugh, but he only managed a small smile. “…You never brought that up.”

“You never asked. But Core knows.” Lisa shot the brown haired man a glare.

“How does he know though…?”

 “I walked in on her changing a few years back…” Core muttered. “Way before you came to the school.”

“So why the hell do you have a problem with me being like that now?”

The older man sighed, looked away. “I just need to get used to it…”

John snarled angrily and crossed his arms.

Core opened up his laptop. “I’m not sure what we’re supposed to do about Maverick.” He muttered, attempting to change the topic.  “They obviously haven’t found this location yet, but that’s only a matter of time, I think.”

“They’ll just keep sending more until they’ve killed us.” John hissed, slightly annoyed at the change of topic but too fed up with it to mention it.

“Then we have to kill their boss.” Lisa said.

“You want to kill Boris?” John asked in disbelief. He had no idea why he still clung to the tiny shred of hope that all of this had a good explanation, yet that shred shrank with every hour. Soon enough there would only be hatred for what the man had done.

“He certainly is a coward for not coming here himself.” Core agreed.

John flinched when the phone he kept with him rang. Slowly he picked it up. Looked at the screen. His mother was calling again.

“Mom?”

The woman didn’t say anything for a moment or two, then she sighed. “How’re you doing?”

“You lied to me.” John growled at her. “Dok said you he didn’t talk to you at all.”

His mother chuckled silently. “I’m sorry. But how are you?”

“I’m fine.” The teen growled, still angry that she had lied. “Do you want anything?” That came out harsher than he had intended.

“I’d like to talk to your father, if that’s possible.”

The teen flinched slightly. “…I don’t know where he is-“ John cut himself off, said too much again.

“That’s why I can’t reach him…”Rose almost whispered.

John furrowed his brows. “Mom what are you talking about?”

“Nothing. I have to go now.”

John stared at the phone, slightly angry and sort of confused.

After that they kept trying to figure out a solution to the Maverick issue, but there was none they could come up with except to kill Boris. John didn’t like the idea. Doing that would just make it worse. It was better to get him in Jail. Somehow.

“You said your dad found out something about Maverick, right?” Core then asked.

“Yeah, why?”

Core slightly shook his head, hands flying over the keyboard of his laptop. “What if newspapers get a whiff of it?”

“That’s dangerous!” John yelled. “They’d just kill off anyone who knows!”

“Would they kill the whole world?”Core hit the enter key, and whatever he had written was sent to someone.

“What did you just do?” Lisa now asked, eyes wide in fear.

“My dad used to work for some really big newspaper back home. He has connections all over the world.”

“Core, what the hell?” John hissed.

Core grinned. “You should appreciate that.”

“But…”

“If every major newspaper knows about this, it’s only a matter of time. Things spread fast in the internet.”

John nodded slightly, flinched when suddenly thunder roared outside.

Lisa cursed. “There’s no way I go out now.”

John stared out the window; watch the lightning, counted the seconds until the thunder went off.

“I hate thunderstorms…” Lisa hissed, moved away from the window.

“I love them.” John whispered without taking his eyes off the window.

“What the hell is lovable about them?!”

John smiled slightly. “It’s… pretty stupid.”

“Do tell.” Core urged him on.

“Well…” John nervously rubbed his head, absentmindedly noticed that his hair was really bad off. He blushed in embarrassment when he realized the story he was supposed to tell his friends now. “I was five okay, that’s really long ago and… well… I was scared of them… and my dad kind of told me that’s lightning too and that there is no reason to be scared?” John let his voice trail of, stared at his friends who looked at each other for a second and then burst into laughter.

“I told you it was stupid!” John protested.

“Your father thinks he’s lightning?” Lisa laughed.

“You got it wrong!” John yelled. “I was only five, I wouldn’t have understood all the reason behind it…”

“So there is a reason?” Core wondered aloud.

John sighed, made a mental not to stop getting so agitated. Doktor had told him not to put too much strain onto himself. “Well he had a codename… ‘Raiden’…and-“ John stopped when Core typed into his laptop again.

“Your dad is a nerd who likes Mortal Combat?” Lisa asked in confusion.

“The Japanese had jets named like that.” Core helpfully informed John.

“I know!” John protested. “But it means thunder and lightning!”

“Ooooh!” Lisa exclaimed then, realizing what the point of the story John had told was.

 John grumbled silently. “Can you find out where my dad is?” then teen then asked Core, already regretting it, but he needed to know that, otherwise there was no way he would get any rest later.

Core shrugged, it was obvious that he didn’t like it, but he and Lisa  both started at the screen and discussed some things before Core looked up at John and shook his head. “I can’t find the signal.”

John held his breath for a moment.

“That could mean that he’s in a tunnel or something.” Lisa explained quickly.

“Or worse…” John didn’t want to add that, but he couldn’t stop himself.

And then he had an idea that he thought was able to get rid of all the problems.


	15. Chapter 15

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There will be an epilogue. Where all the weird things get explained and all.   
> Gosh i am shaking after finishing this chapter... whee.
> 
> Hope you enjoy it! As always, I'd love to hear what you like and what i could do better!

John toyed with the cell phone. It was already evening again, the thunderstorm had passed and Core and Lisa had left. Left alone, John began to think about his father again. Just where was this guy? Sam was nowhere to be found either. He forced himself not to think about the worst. After all, Sam was probably with him and even after fighting for who knew how many hours Sam had still been standing and put up a really interesting fight.

The teen wondered if his father was just reckless, or if there was more to it. He pulled up the website of Maverick, scrolled through it. He scoffed at  a few paragraphs that described the company, then found what he was looking for. A number.

Once he had typed it into the cell phone he briefly wondered about the bill, then called them anyway.

It didn’t take long for someone to pick up. It was an automated message, something he had expected. _‘Maverick Security Consulting, What can I do for you?’_

“I’d like to speak to your CEO.”

_‘He is currently on a business trip. You can leave a message that will be delivered to him later.’_

“Tell him we’re going to stop him, no matter how many idiots they force onto us.”

_‘ Your message has been recorded and will be delivered. Have a nice day.’_

John scoffed. These AI’s were pathetic. He was probably biased because he knew Wolf. When he had been younger Wolf always seemed like a man trapped in a cybernetic dog. Of course, by now John had noticed the little flaws Wolf had, but those only made him more likable. And arguing with him was fun. He used to tease the AI just to get into a heated discussion with him.

The teen sighed, too much going through his head to really get some rest so he decided to wander round a little more. Earlier Core’s weak attempt at an apology had turned into a wheelchair race and ended with the destruction of a potted plant. Dok had scolded them for quite a while. He had quickly gotten used to the thing, but it still was nothing he wanted to call an everyday item. For now it was fine. He realized himself that walking was too dangerous at the moment. He could if he tried hard enough, but it was exhausting and he didn’t want to risk crashing into anything. For now it was enough to know that it was possible at all.

John collected the coffee mug Lisa had forgotten earlier and brought it to the tiny kitchen area upstairs. It was mostly used by Dok and his assistants, but he had used it quite often in the past as well. He realized he had spent quite a lot of time at this place. Mostly to help Dok with things, but also to talk to someone who’d understand him. Dok was probably still working on putting things together and so John cleaned up the kitchen, made some tea for himself and stared out of the window. There were a few raindrops that hadn’t dried up yet, went by unnoticed by the teen. 

He checked the cell-phone when he sipped the tea, sighed deeply when he saw nothing new. Not even a message of Core or Lisa.

He almost pilled the hot liquid over his legs when the phone began to ring. John didn’t know the number, but thinking it might be important he picked up.

“Who’s there?” He asked silently and carefully as he placed the cup on the counter.

“Sam.” The not so unfamiliar accent sounded on the other side.

“Are you okay?” The only thing John could think of.

A scoff. “Not Okay, but alive.”

John exhaled slowly, relief washing over him. “Where are you?”

A snort. “Surrounded by _idiotas…_ ” The man hissed as if the word was toxic.

“Again?!” John almost yelled.

Sam chuckled silently. “Asking for help really hurts my pride.”

John was silent for a moment, probably too long for Sam’s liking as the man continued to speak. “They haven’t found us yet.”

“I-I’ll…” John took a deep breath, telling himself to calm down. “Where are you?”

Sam sighed in annoyance. “Somewhere. The city is too big to make out locations by surroundings alone.”

“…Is dad with you?”

“What kind of person do you take me for?” Sam teased. “Couldn’t leave an unconscious man lie around in the middle of the street, now, could I?”

“No…” John whispered. “I’ll… I’ll trace him… give me five minutes… okay?”

“Not sure we have five minutes, _menino_.”

“It’ll have to do.” John hissed, ended the call and made it back to his room in record time. The lack of people in the hallways and the set of wheels made it fairly easy to move around quickly. He was glad Dok hadn’t caught him. The man would have scolded him again.

Once back in his room he started up the laptop and opened up one of the programs he had seen on the desktop of the device before. It was used to track certain numbers as well has GPS systems. Once started, the program showed him a map of the city as well the location of the laptop and several red and green dots spread all over it. One of them was his father.

John navigated to the search bar, glad he knew how the program worked as he had used it a few times already. Mostly for experiments. Not too long ago he had calibrated the GPS of a cyborg who kept complaining that the navigation was off by a lot. The teen wasn’t quite sure why they even needed it, but he wasn’t going to question.

He opened up a database of all ID’s that were currently registered in the tracking system and began looking through them after he had entered the log in data. It took him two minutes to find three entries that could have been his father. One of them was moving, so it was probably not the person he was looking for. The second was in a mall, also unlikely. Sam would have known where they were then. That narrowed it down to the third.  The map showed a building, but as it had no description it was probably an apartment complex or not finished yet. He knew the area, Core and he had gone to see a movie not far from there.

When Sam picked up the call the first thing John heard were gunshots. Shivers raced down his spine, fear spreading again.

“You need to turn left. There should be a road. It leads to a train station.”

“Got it.” Sam hissed. John heard him say something under his breath, but it didn’t seem to be directed at him so he stayed quiet. John followed the movements of the dot on the map. It was pretty fast, considering Sam was probably dragging his father around. Unless he had regained consciousness of course. There was no way to tell with just the tracking.

“When you reached the station cross the street to your right. There should be a huge park.”

He watched as Sam followed the directions, waited until the man had reached the park before he continued to speak.

“Take the path to your left, along the lake.”

“Having fun giving orders?” Sam teased again.

“You should see a bridge to your left. Cross that and head right.” John said, ignored the man’s attempts at teasing. He wasn’t in the mood to react to that. Pain was beginning to get bad again. He couldn’t rest until he was sure that Sam had gotten far enough away from their pursuers.

He continued to guide Sam through the park until the man confirmed that they weren’t tailed anymore. Then the teen told him to head to the train station at the exit of the park. John hoped Sam got the hint and actually showed up in Dok’s lab.

He was getting nervous, fear and anger always present ever since Sam had called the first time. His hands were trembling, heart racing. Also the pain. But he could still ignore it.

A few minutes later Doktor entered the room, a faint smile on his face. “You didn’t have to clean up the kitchen.”

“I wanted to.” John replied silently, sighed.

“Get some rest. I know it’s hard for someone like you, but you shouldn’t move around too much.”

John looked away, stared out of the window even though it was too dark to make out anything by now. “You’ll fix dad’s body… right? I still have money on my account… He… needs the body to work properly and-”

“John…” Doktor sighed and sat down on the bed next to him. “Issues like money can be talked about later. Your father always paid back the money that was used on repairs.”

“…So you’ll repair the body no matter how bad it is?”

Doktor nodded firmly. “Of course. I have no reason not to do it. But we should not think too far. Perhaps he is just unable to contact us because of the malfunctioning voice box.”

“I hope so…” John muttered, thought about what Sam had said.

“I also have finished the kidney unit, I could install it tomorrow if you feel up to it.”

John grimaced. He knew that eventually that thing had to be built in. “...And the risks…?”

Doktor laughed. “I will inform you of all those tomorrow. I suggest you sleep now.”

“…If dad shows up you wake me up.” John insisted, waited until Doktor nodded and turned on his side, grunted a bit at the soreness still in his body.

He turned around for a while until he found a position he was satisfied with and was already half asleep when he heard voices. His first reaction was to ignore them, but they kept talking and so he slowly sat up again, yawned silently and slowly got to his feet. He was only going to peek out the door. The few steps wouldn’t hurt.

Half way to the door he realized it hadn’t been such a good idea to trust his legs yet, but he managed to get to the door without any major stumbling. Slowly he opened the door, looked at the glass covered rail straight ahead and peeked down into the entrance hall. Two people were standing there, almost invisible in the shadows.

Silently he sat down on the cold floor, both to be out of sight and because his legs refused to hold him up any longer. He really wasn’t sure how long it would take to use them to their full extend again, if ever.  But he could worry about that later. It also sounded as if a tap was leaking, but John couldn’t think of any that would be audible from where he currently was.

He barely had time to shield his eyes when bright light suddenly flooded the building and a loud bang nearly shattered his eardrums. Glass shattered and was flung back at the wall. He hit his head, whimpered silently at the pain, tried to open his eyes against the flames. His ears were ringing badly, everything spun. The glass rail had shattered as well, there was nothing left except the metal frame of it. Smoke filled the entrance hall, sprinklers already trying to put the fire out. John had no idea what happened when he got on all fours, cut his hands at the glass shards but didn’t care as he slowly crawled towards the staircase.  There were three people down there. One clad in a white coat, holding his head. Doktor’s glasses had flown off to somewhere but he made no attempt to find them as he hurried away from the flames.

Someone dashed up the stairs, tall, fast. For a second John had hoped it was his father, but the disappointment when he recognized Sam was clear in his face. Sam didn’t bother to say anything when he lifted the Teen up and ran through one of the corridors.

“W-wait!” John yelled, panic clear in his voice. “Where’s Dad?!”

“Don’t worry.” Was all Sam said.

John wasn’t satisfied with the answer and tried to struggle out of the strong grip. It was impossible, he knew that even before he had tried, but he couldn’t just leave it at that. “What happened?!”

“They got us. They’re attacking. You know this place better than I do, get out of here, we’ll hold them off.”

With that Sam let John down. The dark corridors looked eerie but John knew them well. There were enough rooms to hide in, some of them were connected through doors. It was a maze to anyone who didn’t know it. John watched Sam turn around and storm back to where he had come from.

For a minute John just sat on the ground and waited. Gunshots and screams reached his ear, screeching metal, more glass shattering. Only then he noticed this heart hammering against his chest as if it wanted to get out of there. He swallowed hard, mouth dry, body trembling. He wanted to go back, help if that was everything he could do.

“…He said ‘We’. …Dad’s gotta be there.” John whispered to himself, barely heard his own voice over the ringing in his hears that only slowly subsided.

He hesitated, unsure. If he followed Sam’s orders he would probably get out of there alive. If he didn’t it could mean his certain death, and yet, even though he knew it could end badly, he decided to do something about it. Slowly, still on all fours he made his way to the set of stairs at the back of the corridor, once more thought about just taking the emergency exit before he slowly made his way down the stairs. He tried to be as silent as possible, expected someone to show up at any second. When no one crossed his path, he was relieved and sort of worried. Where had Dok run off to?

The fire wasn’t visible from where he was, hoped for a moment that the sprinklers had put it out already. He knew that was impossible and was proved right when he inched closer to the set of doors that led into the entrance hall. Two men were fighting against a bunch of armed cyborgs not unlike those John had seen not too long ago on the laptop and back in the parking lot. John reeled back with a gasp when a bullet it the glass of the door and stuck to it. A second later one of the cyborgs was flung against the door and shattering the already damaged glass. He was unconscious or dead, John couldn’t tell and didn’t care.

The man had dropped his gun, it was so close, all he had to do was pick it up. Slowly he reached out to the black thing, flinched at the cold metal against his bloodied hands. It looked like any other gun, like all those he had seen in the games. He knew how they worked even when he had never held a real one. There were still bullets inside, all he had to do was aim and pull the trigger.

He barely realized he had stepped through the shattered door, shard cutting into his socks. He felt strangely numb, even the lack of proper balance wasn’t bothering him anymore. And then he saw a man in midst of all the cyborgs. A dark haired man, armed with a rocket launcher, his face cold as stone as he shot one of the supporting pillars of the staircase. It crumbled at the impact, the explosion blinding, deafening.

Boris had actually dared to show up in person. John gripped the gun tighter, his heart racing. Anticipation was racing through him. He could take the man out. He wasn’t looking at him, too distracted to shoot at the two men busy taking out cyborgs. The teen raised the gun, finger moving over the trigger. It would be easy. Just like a game. Take the enemies out and move on.

But this was real. These people were breathing, alive. He had been against taking anyone’s life just hours ago. When the next shot of the man he aimed at tore into the walls and took down all the potted plants and the children’s drawings time seemed to slow down.

As if his body knew what he needed to do he adjusted his stance, glanced at Boris again. Everything slowed, his heartbeat, his breath.

“JOHN NO! DON’T SHOOT!” A screeching voice, mechanic, distorted, loud and inhuman sounding blared through the eerie silence.

John didn’t pay attention to it. Boris needed to pay for what he had done to him, to his mother and most of all to his father. He had a clear shot, and with an icy glare he pulled the trigger.

As the shot blocked out all other noise, a shadow was in front of him. The bullet sank into the torn shirt of the man who had jumped into the line of fire. The recoil ripped his hands up a bit, making them blaze in a strange pain.

He sank to his knees when the blond cyborg in front of him did as well. Now he heard the beeping of the smoke detectors, the fire so close, felt the heat on his face. Pain was real now, the trembling of his hands made the gun clatter to the ground and all he could do was stare at the pained face of his father.

His breath hitched as he tried to understand what he had just done, couldn’t process it. The fight raging on behind his father was so unimportant now, so insignificant and pointless. He found it hard to breathe, but that wasn’t because of the smoke. He had shot at a human being, even worse, he had hit the man he wanted to protect. He had shot at his own father!

His father shook his head, a strange understanding in his gaze. There was no anger, no blame, just a reassuring glance, sorrow, pain.

Neither of them noticed that the fighting had stopped. John couldn’t move, was numbed by fear and frozen to the spot.

When two heavy hands rested on his shoulders the sobs came. He was pulled into a hug before he knew it, almost too tight. One hand resting on his hair, the other running over his back. The man was shaking badly, but John was too occupied with his own thought to really take note of it.

“I know…” the man tried to whisper, the voice coming out monotone and without any warmth. “I know…”

What did he knew? John could barely breathe through all the sobs. What did the man know? Was he mad after all? Angry? Furious?

John was surprised when he was lifted off the ground, held by his father as if he was five again. That only made more tears come. He couldn’t see what was going on, didn’t want to listen to the words that were spoken.

“I’m sorry…” He squeezed out. “I…I didn’t-“ a sob interrupted him. “I… oh god… what… what…. Did I do…”

The man didn’t reply, John wished he would have said anything. Maybe the voice box had failed again. It was clear that the thing was malfunctioning badly. When the man suddenly went limp John would have screamed if his voice had obeyed. Tears blinded him, only the short gasps of air of the man half hanging over him kept him from panicking completely. His father was alive. He had just passed out.

John flinched when someone suddenly entered his field of vision, ready to jump to his feet, even about to take the gun again when he remembered how terrible wrong everything went. When the teen recognized Sam he leaned backwards against the wall behind him, sweat ran down his face, a sigh of relief escaped him.

“It’s over.” Sam said silently, crouched down next to the two, gently patted John on the head. “Didn’t think you’d actually shoot.”

John swallowed hard, the yell of his father still sounding in his ears. Despite the failing voice he had sounded so panicked.

“I-Is it…” John licked his lips, voice shaking as much as his body.  “Is it really…? Do they stop now…?”

Sam nodded slightly. “We took care of it. Come on, let’s get you two out of here before the police comes, they’ll only ask questions.”

John nodded slightly, almost relieved when the heavy weight of his father was lifted from him. Slowly the pain shoved itself into his mind. His feet and hands were blazing with pain, some of the cuts still bleeding. John was surprised when Sam lifted his father over his shoulder with the cybernetic arm and held the free hand out to him. John gladly took it, still not trusting his legs. He wasn’t feeling too great either, but that could wait.

When they walked through the corridor Doktor joined them again, quickly dressed the bleeding wounds on John’s hands and feet and insisted that he’d use a wheelchair instead of walking. John was too tired to argue, to busy with his own thoughts that he barely registered leaving the building. It was a clear night, a few stars visible.

Was it really over now? Could they really live peaceful lives again?


	16. Chapter 16

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's DONE.... oh my god...  
> If there is still anything that doesn't make sense, do tell. I'm good at creating plot holes without realizing them... HAHA.
> 
> Thank you all for your support, for all the great comments (sorry i couldn't reply to all of them, but I have read every single one!)
> 
> THANK YOU. without you guys i would have lost motivation long ago!
> 
> It was really fun to write this story. I have no immediate idea for a new fic, but there will be more in the future. 
> 
> I can't believe it's done already... haha.

John was zapping through every channel on the TV, didn’t really find anything interesting to watch. The news had briefly talked about an explosion at a lab, said it was to be investigated but that no one has been injured or killed. John found that slightly suspicious, didn’t care too much about it though. Maybe Maverick had learned their lesson now.

He still couldn’t quite believe what he had done, was almost glad his father had taken the shot. Doktor had briefly peeked into the hospital room and informed him that his father would be alright, that Sam was okay too. Still, any question as to how his father was doing was ignored. The teen couldn’t help but wonder if things were really looking as good as Dok had said or if he had lied.  A knock on the door made him jump slightly, remote slipping out of his hand. Earlier Sam had spoken to him for a bit, reassuring him that everything would work out fine and that he shouldn’t worry. But was Sam back now or was it someone else?

“Y-yes?”

Even after he had replied to the knock it still took a few more seconds before the door was opened. John was pleasantly surprised when a young woman he hadn’t seen in quite a while entered.

“Sunny…?” He exclaimed in slight shock. She was the last person he had expected to show up here.

Sunny grinned and pulled someone after. Now John had to look twice. Sunny had dragged his mother into the room.

“…Mom what are you doing here?”

Rose smiled, walked up to him. She had a flower petal in her hair. John had no idea where it came from. “I’m allowed to worry about my son, right?”

John rolled his eyes. “I’m fine, really. Dok already installed the unit. I’m good to go in the next few days.”

His mother didn’t seem too convinced when she sat down on the bed. “A lot happened...”

The teen scoffed. “This was the craziest week ever. Can you imagine how this is like?” he said, gestured wildly to make his point clear.  “I learn maverick did shit, I find out dad is alive, then all this crap happens and now everything is fine again? What the hell mom?” Rose only took his hands and pulled him into a tight hug.

“I’m just glad you’re okay, sweetheart…” She whispered, her voice shaking slightly. “…I knew your dad was alive… but I didn’t want you to find out about it. He doesn’t know that I knew…”

John flinched. “What? Why?!”

“Shh. Let me finish.” She continued, then slowly pulled away and Sunny came closer. “I found it out a week before you did.” Rose explained. “Courtney wrote a mail. She told me that he was living somewhere around here. Told me that maverick had found him and wanted to kill him. I thought it was a stupid and cruel prank so I asked Sunny to look into it.”

Sunny nodded. “Then I found the files I sent you… by the way you mentioned that Boris was cloning people or something, but I could find absolutely nothing about that.”

John frowned. “Of course they’d keep it hidden… Or what do you think?”

Sunny shook her head. “If all these people had been cloned, they would all have the same or very similar DNA.” She played around with her hair for a moment, then sighed. “Like Uncle David and Liquid… they were clones… and their DNA was very similar…”

“Liquid?” John lifted an eyebrow in confusion. “What?”

Sunny shook her head. “Forget about it, I still haven’t fully understood it myself.  Anyway, Hal looked into this, and these people Maverick has aren’t clones. They’re not even related. All these people were legally hired by maverick.”

“You… mean dad lied to me? Or dad has been lied to?”

“Either seems likely.” Sunny shrugged.  “Before you get upset,” Sunny quickly said and raised her hands in a defensive manner, “There must be a reason if he lied. Jack’s a terrible liar, we _all_ know that.” She said carefully, watched the reaction of the other two people in the room. Rose nodded slightly. John just sighed in annoyance.

 “Besides, cloning is a bit extreme, don’t you think? It’s forbidden, and Hal said that creating perfect clones that live long enough is difficult and way too expensive to create an army with them. It makes no sense. Also they’d have to be born naturally, like any other child. These people are way older than any successful clone would be at this point, even if they had started this ten years ago.”

John shook his head. “But… why would Dad make this up?”

Sunny shrugged. “Ask him. Or ask Boris.”

“He’s… alive?”

“Of course he is. He told me he was there because his employees went a bit too extreme. He wanted to stop them… But he really seems angry at Jack…”

“Wait, you talked to him. And… he wasn’t there to kill us but to stop his own people?”

Sunny sighed. “That's what he told me. He had no idea what the hell I was talking about when I mentioned the Clones, by the way. He even laughed at me when I accused him. He thought I was joking!”

“And you believe him?!” John hissed.

“Wolf was certain that Boris had no idea what I was talking about.”

“But why did he want to kill dad?!”

Sunny turned away. “He refused to tell me that… but he said he’d pay for the damage done to the lab and cover all necessary repairs to the building and the equipment.”

“That sounds too good to be true, Sunny.” John growled.

Sunny hung her shoulders. “I know.” She sighed, stared at him with big brown eyes. “I think the only way to find out what is really going on is to ask Jack…”

“He’s still unconscious.” Rose informed both of them.

“You’ve already seen him?”

The woman shook her head. “Wasn’t allowed.”

“She tried to beat Doktor up with the flower bouquet.” Sunny helpfully informed John.

John reached out to the petal in his mother’s hair and pulled it out. “So that’s where this comes from.”

Rose nodded slightly, at a loss for words.

John watched the women in his room, sighed once more. He wasn’t sure what he was supposed to think now. Earlier things finally started to make sense, and now everything was falling out of place yet again.

“But hey you’re a cyborg too now.” Sunny grinned, not realizing she hit a nerve with that.

John glared at her, gaze cold and fierce. “Yeah it’s _so_ great.” He growled, sarcasm seeping through.

“Well…” Sunny mumbled awkwardly, blushing in embarrassment. “I-It’s not as bad as it was back then.”

John scoffed. “I know how this stuff works. I wanted to avoid this at all costs and now…”

“But it’s not visible at all.” Sunny muttered. “No one will know.”

“That’s not the point!”

“John…” Rose said silently. “It’s not bad. You’ll get used to it.”

“What the hell do you know about getting used to that?!” John shouted at his mother.

Rose didn’t seem impressed at the rage of her son and continued calmly, “Is it really as bad as you make it seem to be? This is better than spending all day connected to _that_ terrible machine, isn’t it?”

John hung his head, knew his mother was right. Of course she was. He remembered how tired he had been all the time when his mother brought his father over to the hospital in the beginning. Every week at least twice. He also remembered that he often fell asleep cuddling up next to his father and woke up in his bed at home, alone and wondering how he had gotten there.

He swallowed, tears filling his eyes. It could have been worse. His mother hugged him again, kissed his hair and smiled. “You’ll get used to it. You’re a strong young man, you’re brave and you face everything that scares you with a laugh.”

“And stupid…” John added. “If I had listened to dad this wouldn’t have happened…”

Rose chuckled silently. “When you were young you often asked your father how it is like, do you remember?”

John nodded. He had bugged his father with thousands of questions, everyday he wanted to know something new.

“It was so cool… and then he passed out on Christmas, took the table with him and knocked down all my cookies.” The teen whispered.

Rose nodded. “And you kept asking what you could do to help.”

John opened his mouth to tell her more about it, but was interrupted by a knock at the door. Doktor came in, a small smile on his face. “He wants to talk to you, John. And explain everything.”

“So he did lie.” John concluded.

“I would not call it a lie…” Doktor sighed. “It was more a necessity…”

Rose got up from the bed and Sunny moved away when John slowly got up from the bed. His legs felt a lot better, but Doktor still insisted that he didn’t put strain on his body. To prove that he could listen to what others told him, he reached for the wheelchair, met the slightly pale face of his mother. “It’s fine, geez.” He hissed. “I don’t even need it. But Dok-“

“This is just to ensure that nothing gets misaligned as long as it is not fully healed.” Doktor explained, didn’t leave room for any more questions when he walked out of the room and expected John to follow.

The teen grimaced at the cold corridors, busy with doctors and patients. Visitors, kids that ran around. He preferred Doktor’s lab. It was a lot calmer there. He almost got lost when Dok suddenly rounded a corner. He had been too busy navigating around ignorant kids.

“…This is a hospital.  A guy in a wheelchair shouldn’t be that much of an attraction.” John growled to himself and soon caught up with Doktor again.

The man stood in front of a door, it looked like a regular hospital corridor, but John had seen the ‘enhanced’ sign that labeled this one. John himself had been kept in the part of the hospital that dealt with normal humans.

The teen almost scoffed when Dok raised his hand to knock at the door. He felt reminded of something from over a decade ago, back when the teen had seen his father for the very first time in his life. But this time it shouldn’t have been so awkward and confusing.

The knock was answered with a grunt and Doktor pushed the handle down. John followed him into the room, anxious and nervous. What would the man say? What was the truth behind whatever he had told him? Would he lie even more?

John flinched when the door shut, only then realized that Doktor had left him alone with his father. He wasn’t quite sure what to think about it and stared at the door for a second longer than he needed to before he finally, slowly turned to his father.

Neither of them said a word for a while, John eyed him like a hawk, took note of the repairs that had been done, those that still had to be done and the cuts on the man’s face that had finally been treated. He was sitting on the edge of the bed, clad in hospital clothing and John felt his stomach turn. He was reminded of a scene so similar to this. But this time he wasn’t excited, he wasn’t eager and he wasn’t happy.  This time he was scared, afraid, uncertain.

“Uhm…” John licked his lips, turned his gaze away. He had no idea what he was supposed to say.

“I’m not mad,” His father said silently. “Don’t look at me as if I’m the most frightening thing in the world…” he sighed, hands folded, eyes focused somewhere above John’s head.

The teen happily noted that the voice box had been fixed, but what the man said hurt him. “I’m not scared!” John almost shouted.

His father chuckled, a wide grin on his face for a split second before it turned into a tiny smile. John needed a second to understand why. “Ugh…” He turned away, blushed in embarrassment. “You …still remember that?” the teen asked silently, pouted slightly.

Another light chuckle. “How could I forget the first thing my son has ever said to me?”

John grumbled in annoyance. It was a memory that had lodged itself deeply into his own mind, something he would never forget. Another moment of silence followed, then John moved the wheelchair over to the bed his father was sitting on.

They looked at each other for another long moment, this time it was Jack who broke the silence. “I… told you a lot of bullshit.”

“I kind of figured that out.” Annoyed the teen crossed his arms. “So how about you tell me what really is going on? No more lies.”

“I’m glad you didn’t figure it out right away.”

“I just learned you’re alive, you could have talked about being friends with aliens and I would have believed you!”

The man shook his head with an amused smile. “You’re a lot like me when I was younger, you know that?”

“…Aren’t all teens like that?”

“I was well in my twenties back then… but that had other reasons.”

“And you’re not gonna share them.” John concluded.

Jack shook his head. “Not all of them.”

John looked at the man again. “Tell me what’s going on. I have enough time.”

The older man took a deep breath, stared at the walls. “It’s hard… talking to you about this.”

“Just start already.” John urged him on impatiently. He noticed that his father was fumbling around with a spiky ball, but didn’t pay much attention to it.

“…I… accidentally uploaded a virus to Mavericks servers.”

John snorted at that. “How the hell did you do that on accident? And why would they want to kill you for it?”

“It’s not that simple…” The man muttered. “They thankfully noticed it right away and shut everything down…” He ran a hand through his hair, almost dropped the ball in the process but John grabbed it and held it out to him again.

“Wouldn’t talking about it be enough? I can believe they’d fire you but… kill you?”

“Like I said, it’s not so simple.” The man continued. “The virus destroyed a good portion of their servers. It was some code that would have opened a file somewhere in the internet…”

“Viruses do that all the time. Ask Core about it, he writes these things for fun when we have lunch break.” John shrugged.

“This file was supposed to access a bunch of other files and restore something that had been destroyed ages ago…”

Now John was confused. He wasn’t sure if he still followed what his father was trying to explain. “What?”

“Have you ever heard about SOP?”

John furrowed his brows. “Something about everything being controlled by nanomachines and ID’s and that some people really wanted it back for a while? I read about that in a textbook.”

The older man sighed. “I guess that’s the slimmed down version they teach you in school.”

“You know more about it?”

“Too much to explain it all in one day. But you’re right, people wanted it back.”

John nodded slightly to acknowledge the man’s words, but still had no real idea how everything connected. “And what does this all have to do with you?”

“Do you know about the Big Shell?”

John wasn’t quite sure if his father was avoiding the question of if it mattered if h knew.  “Something about a Metal Gear and some really big ship that crashed into Manhattan. Lisa got really curious about that weird story a while ago and asked me to help her looking for info. She wasn’t satisfied with what we found for a whole week.” John explained, gestured wildly to make his point clear.  “There was a lot of weird stuff going on. I wasn’t really interested in it though. It sounded like some horror game and really fake if you ask me. Some guy who has to infiltrate the whole thing on his own, lots of weird people showing up, the whole thing blows up and then there was a weird fight on top of federal hall. I don’t believe a word about this crap, but it’d be a great plot for a game…”

When John didn’t get a reply right away he tilted his head in slight confusion.

“Yeah… it was a really strange thing.”

John grimaced, still confused. “Can you finally tell me what the hell you wanted to tell me?”

Jack sighed once more, played with the ball in his hands as if he wanted to strangle it. “I’m surprised you two found this much on it… That’s pretty much what happened back there.”

“We dug pretty deep… and turned up a few classified files we should have never looked at.  How do you know that, though?”

“I was the guy who infiltrated the thing.”

John held his breath for a moment. “You’re kidding…”

The man shook his head slightly, didn’t look at John. “But that wasn’t what I wanted to tell you. They injected me with nanomachines. They blocked my memories and did a bunch of other things, but what no one knew they were doing instead of turning me into a confused time bomb, was that they implanted a code in my brain.”

John’s frown got deeper than it had been already and he reminded himself not to overdo it as tensing the muscles of his face still hurt his nose, even though the fracture wasn’t as bad as it hurt.

“It was there for decades, apparently. A precaution maybe… a bunch of AI’s ran SOP… I don’t know the whole story. This code that’s inside my brain is used to access a file that downloads a virus… and that virus in turn will spread through the internet and locate the file hidden somewhere in there… it’s… supposed to ’revive’ these AI’s…”

John blinked, too surprised by the new information. “H-how did you figure that all out?”

“Apparently there is a random combination of numbers and letters and it triggers some sort of black out… I… had no idea what I was doing until it was too late.  Courtney and Kevin needed weeks to figure out what had happened. They never found the hidden file but they found out what it was supposed to do.”

“Okay.” John muttered. “And why do they want to kill you?”

Jack threw the ball in the air, caught it, played around with it a little more before he continued to speak. “They wanted to get rid of the piece of code. The problem is that no one knows where it is, destroying the files isn’t easy either, as they can’t be accessed without the code. The only solution Maverick accepted was to erase my entire memory and hope it would take this code with them.”

“Erase your memory?!” John exclaimed angrily.

“Yeah… before I knew you I wouldn’t have cared… But now there are more important things, so I refused. Then they decided that the only way humanity would be safe was to get rid of me.”

The teen closed his eyes for a brief moment, tried to process all the information. “And you didn’t tell me this right away why?”

“I was afraid they would assume I had shared the code with someone… but they thought that anyway and I put you and your friends in danger by letting my guard down and getting discovered.”

“So the cloning is total bullshit and never happened.” John noted.

“Correct.”

“And Maverick is trying to kill you because they think you could ruin the economy… of the entire world.”

The man nodded slightly.

“That’s even weirder than the cloning…”

“But this is the truth… it needs a server powerful enough to access these files… so around here it’s probably safe.”

“Probably.” John echoed. “There’s no other way to get rid of it?”

“I have no idea.” The man shrugged. “Sunny might.”

John rubbed his head, not quite sure what to do with all the information. “Wait.  If you were this guy in the big shell… what the hell, dad? What… how… I mean I know you’re fighting and all that but…”

The older man sighed, tugged at the ill fitting clothing they had given him. “It’s nothing I want to think about.”

“Lisa said this guy defeated a bunch of Metal Gear Rays. Alone. Barehanded…”

 “With a rocket launcher.”

“Still! You know how big these things are?!”

“…Yeah.”

“…I mean… that’s probably nothing too special for a combat cyborg, but still!” John complained. He wasn’t sure if he was supposed to believe the whole story or not.

“…I… was still completely human back then…”

John quickly shook his head. “That’s impossible!”

“Ask you mother or Hal. They both know.”

The teen took a deep breath, tried to get rid of all the confusion in his mind. “How do we get Boris to leave you alone?”

“Dok and I already planned something out.”

John got to his feet, grabbed the arm of his father. “You’re not going to run away again, right?!”

“No. Not this time.”

John yelped in surprise when his father picked him up and sat him on the bed.

“Didn’t Dok say to take it easy?”

The teen shrugged and leaned against the man, suddenly tired and exhausted at all the things he had just learned. “I’m fine, Dok’s overdoing it.”

“He’s just worried.” Jack sighed, wrapped an arm around the teen.

“How about you? There are still repairs to be done, right?”

“Dok’s doing them later.”

John nodded slightly, noticed he was drifting off into sleep. He forced himself to stay awake when someone knocked and entered the room. When he recognized his mother, he thought it was better to leave his parents alone and slowly got up again, somewhat sluggish when he left the room and headed back to his own.

On the way there he ran into Boris. Had noticed too late that the man had approached. Now he couldn’t move, almost felt frozen. He had no idea what to say, couldn’t find any word that wasn’t filled with hatred and anger.

“I wanted to apologize.” The man muttered. His dark hair had gotten gray over the years. He looked a lot older than when John had seen him the last time.

“For trying to kill me?!” The teen hissed angrily.  “I have nothing to say to you, shove your apology up your ass!” Heads turned into their direction, but John couldn’t care less.

“I did not give the order to kill you.”

“Oh and that makes you such a great guy? What about dad?” Anger boiled inside John. He barely noticed that it had gotten eerily silent around them. “You think killing him is a good solution?! Ruining a family just because you find it convenient?!”

“Boy-“

“I’m not a stupid Kid anymore! Go fuck yourself! Don’t ever come close to me or my family again! I _hate_ you! I hate you so much I can’t even find a word for it! Leave!” The teen was surprised at his loud voice but didn’t give a damn about it. His words were echoing through the hall, sounding hoarse and cracking already. “Leave! There’s nothing more I have to say to you! Don’t ever do anything to us again! Let us live in peace!”

John grabbed his chest as he was gasping for air. He knew it had been a bad idea to get this riled up, but he couldn’t help it. In the end Boris had to be wrestled out of the building by security guards and John found himself flocked by nurses. No matter how often he told them that he was alright, they wouldn’t get the hint and even brought him back to his room.

Sunny lifted an eyebrow at him when he had settled down in the bed again and turned his back towards her.

“Are you-“

“Leave me alone.”

“John…”

“I want to be alone.” The teen growled, voice weak and full of tears.

“What did Jack tell you?”

“Things.” He wiped tears away, thankful that he wasn’t facing Sunny. The mattress sank in a bit and John realized Sunny had sat down on it. She rested a hand on his shoulder, leaned over to see his face.

“What things?”

“Sunny… go away.” The teen growled.

“I can’t just leave you like this…”

“I’m fine!”

“You’re stubborn, that’s what you are.” She poked his cheek, smirked when he snarled and batted her hand away.

“You lost all the baby fat. There’s nothing squishy about you anymore… You look as if you haven’t eaten in days, by the way.”

“You make it sound as if I’ve been fat.” John chose not to reply to her statement, he really had no idea when he had last eaten something.

“You should grow your hair longer.”

“…I’ll look like a mop if I do, believe me.”

Sunny laughed, gently tugged at his hair that was loosely hanging down, not styled at all. “I missed you too, you know?”

“I never said I missed you.”

“You looked really when I walked in earlier.”

“I was happy mom was there.”

“Liar. You didn’t even see her when you smiled at me like an idiot.” Sunny pouted. “But really you’ve grown so much! Last time I saw you we were almost the same height!”

“You paid attention to that…?” The last time he had seen Sunny in person had been on the funeral, he didn’t want to remember those horrible moments.

“I tried to distract myself… but he’s back, so we can forget about that.”

“Yeah you’re like that.”

“huh?”

“Nothing.”

Sunny sighed and with it she let her full weight sink onto John like a deflated balloon. “You know… I think I’ll move here.”

“Are you trying to make a move on me, Ms Emmerich?” John asked with a raised eyebrow, but his voice gave away that he was teasing her.

She smirked. “Maybe. But I got a job offer and since you’re here anyway, there would be someone to show me the city and all.”

“You could take Wolf along.”

“Yeah but Wolf’s kinda angry at me…”

John chuckled. “What did you do to him this time?”

“Well I didn’t find it that bad, but he really didn’t like the idea and now he refuses to talk to me.”

John frowned, couldn’t think of anything that would cause Wolf to stop talking to Sunny for longer than a few hours. Unless she had dumped a bucket of chemicals on him, but Sunny wasn’t clumsy enough to do that.

“I’ll show you later.” Sunny smiled, used a knee to support herself and mover her upper body over John to kiss his cheek. “I’m glad you’re okay. I… well you’re pretty much my best friend and kind of like a little brother… are you blushing?”

John turned his head away, his cheeks burning. Sunny had always ignored it, there was no reason she would change her view and so he just gazed at the wall and suppressed the tears that were welling up in his eyes yet again. It was really easy to make him cry lately.

“Leave…” He whispered.

“Why?”

“Why can I only be your ‘little brother’?”

Sunny tilted her head in confusion and sat up normally again, her back against John’s. “Because Jack’s my big brother.” She shrugged.

“…Wouldn’t that make me your nephew?”

“You know what I mean.” Sunny sighed, stretched.

“…Core was right… getting out of the friend zone is impossible.”

“Huh?”

“Nothing. Don’t you wanna talk to dad?”

“Later… I’m kind of nervous to see him, you know?”

Now John sat up. “Why?”

Sunny buried her head in her hands and grumbled. “Because it’s embarrassing!”

John shook his head, didn’t understand why Sunny was so embarrassed. A soft knock on the door Made both of them look up.

“Yes?” John said in slight confusion. Maybe his parents? But the person that opened the door was no one John knew. Dark hair, leather jacket, Sun glasses. Someone who apparently gave more about looking cool than paying attention to other people.

“What are you doing here?!” Sunny hissed silently and jumped off the bed, tried to grab the stranger by the arm but he stepped away and she only grabbed air. She huffed in annoyance and crossed her arms. “Sure if you wanna blow the surprise. Go ahead.”

“I fail to understand your reason behind this ‘surprise’.” The stranger said. John thought he knew the voice, but couldn’t get a face that fit.

“Well it was supposed to be funny. They would laugh, you know?”

“Would they laugh at the surprise or at me?”

The stranger had a strange way of speaking, John noticed. He also moved as if he didn’t know what joints were, stiff and sort of inhuman. A cyborg? Someone who had just gotten a cyborg body?

“I am pleased to see that you have not sustained any dangerous injuries, John.” The stranger then said and John could only frown.

“Who are you?”

The expression of the stranger didn’t change, nor did the posture. But he voice did and sounded sort of hurt even. “I apologize. Sunny insisted that this was a good idea. As you know, I am quite powerless without a body. She forced me.”

“Wait…” John muttered. “Hold on a second… Wolf is that you?”

Sunny nodded eagerly and with a wide grin. “I built the body. It was so much fun!”

“I apologize…” The voice sounded hurt and ashamed, something John was surprised at.

“I-it’s okay… Sunny, that’s awful… That would be like mounting dad onto Wolf’s body.”

“Well technically that’s possible.”

“Sunny!” John complained.

“I apologize if my current appearance has frightened you.” Wolf muttered with a voice so human sounding that John could only gape at him for a moment.

“…You’re… expressing emotions.” He whispered in amazement.

“He picked that up not too long ago. It was really cool.” Sunny explained. “That made it a lot more fun to argue with him.”

“Now I get why he ignored you…” John muttered.

Two heads peeked into the still open door and John felt his heart skip a beat when he noticed that His mother was pulling his father along by the hand. Their eyes were glistening, no doubt they had cried. But their tears were gone and they even smiled slightly.

“Ja- Raiden…” Sunny said, took a few steps back and stumbled into Wolf. Her face was a bright red and she hid it in Wolf’s shirt.

“Why are you hiding?” Jack asked in confusion.

“I’m not hiding-“

“Oh, is that your boyfriend?” Rose asked, a smile on her face.

John grimaced. He wasn’t sure if everything would ever be normal again after this, but for now they could at least pretend that everything was fine.

“He’s not…” Sunny whispered, then looked up. “Not really.”

John noticed that Wolf was staring at his father, even through the sunglasses it was visible. He had to look twice when he saw a clear fluid running down the face of the dark haired person. John was sure it was a robotic body, and the ability to express something as human as tears made the whole things quite interesting. Sunny had built a great android.

Jack tried to hide behind Rose when he saw the reaction of the stranger, his expression a mix of confusion and anger.

“…Wolf?” Sunny whispered, tugged his shirt. “I didn’t build that function in to have you cry all the time…”

John reached out and pulled Sunny’s shirt. “It’s new for him… he’s still an AI… but…” The teen looked at his father, confused. “Dad… That’s… Wolf, Sunny thought it was fun to put him in-“

“An android body. I built it myself.” Sunny proudly admitted.

Jack didn’t seem too impressed at all that. “…Wolf.” He said silently.

“I apologize.” Wolf muttered. “I did not expect this to happen.”

John watched them, still not understanding what was happening. Wolf seemed just as confused, at least that was something.

“Sunny has taught me about emotions. This did not happen out of my free will… I could not control it.”

“Emotions are hard to control.” Rose said and walked up to Wolf. “You missed him, isn’t that right?”

John lifted an eyebrow, sort of happy that nobody really focused on him at the moment. They were all busy with Wolf, so Sunny’s surprise at least had a nice effect. Even thought John was sure that the AI didn’t like the attention.

 

* * *

 

Later that day John and his father were allowed to leave the hospital and they headed to a hotel as Jack’s apartment was still destroyed and John’s dorm room was simply too small for so many people. Sunny and Wolf tagged along. Sam promised to show up later.

Lisa and Core showed up at the hotel room not much later, Lisa had pestered John for hours until he finally told her where he was staying. Now Sunny was talking to her and Core. They laughed a lot. Wolf had disappeared into the hallways, probably to avoid the commotion, just like Jack had done. There were some things that just never changed.

To john it all felt surreal and strange. Was it really over now? Would Boris leave them alone?

When he asked his mother about it, she only smiled and nodded.

“He won’t bother us again.”


End file.
